Meaningful student involvement. Students as “researchers”: a physics laboratory experience from space to microworld

Teaching physics and technology is a challenging, rewarding and exciting arena where teachers share the fascinating concepts of physics and technology evolution in a room full of young and inquisitive minds. Every day teaching experience confirms that Science learning motivation is correlated to real world applications. According to the last PISA-OECD survey, the performance of Italian students in STEM is below the OECD average. In the last years the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research (MIUR) has been active in promoting a wide plan to improve STEM learning. These actions strongly supported the connections and collaborations between high schools, universities and research centers. In this framework, the Frascati National Laboratories (LNF) play a very important role in science dissemination through a rich program of physics education activities addressed to Italian teachers and students from all the world. The main idea is that meaningful involvement of students can take the form of engaging students as researchers. In this article the LNF activities for schools are presented with a focus on a case study of a work-related learning program attended by seventeen students of the high school "Liceo Siciliani" from Catanzaro (Italy) in February/March 2017. The students had the possibility to participate in two different experiences related to particle physics and nanotechnology. The project concerning particle physics will have a follow up, since the school "Liceo Siciliani" proposed an experiment on cosmic rays that will take place in the Calabria region, based on the experimental setup the students studied and used at LNF.