Educating to the Scientific Method and Culture in the Italian University Museums

The first Italian University Museums Network, constituted in 2012 for a first project, coordinated by Modena and Reggio Emilia, in 2015 started a second project, approved and financed by the Ministry of the University and Research (Online available from http://www.pomui.unimore.it), dedicated to orient the students to the scientific method and culture. The primary objective was to promote, starting from the historical-scientific and naturalistic heritage of the Network, among the students of the IV and V High School classes, the interest in scientific culture that still suffers not only in our country but worldwide. The Museums of the Network decided not only to propose to look at their scientific instruments and naturalistic specimens or to observe the reproduction of some natural phenomena, but with a hands-on approach for raising awareness, to provide to the students the tools in order to understand the cultural context in which the scientific instruments have been invented or realized, the specimens collected, the phenomena observed for the first time. The museums realized 56 experiential educational paths through the individuation and the sharing of operative methods, the adoption and the use of common languages and tools, with specific attention to the information technologies. These paths are dedicated to three principal themes, biodiversity, color and time, and seven subthemes and are published in the Network web portal (Online available from http://www.retemuseiuniversitari.unimore.it). After this experience, an University Museums Observatory will be useful to help the University Museums to become privileged places of the science communication, laboratories of participation, observatories on the past, present and future and able to promote and develop students’ interests and skills for the scientific culture