Innovative tools for scientific and technological education in Italian secondary schools

This paper describes the project "Biotech a Scuola" ("Biotech at School"), financed by the Italian Ministry of Education within the SeT program (Special Project for Scientific-Technological Education). The project involved the University of Siena, five senior and junior secondary schools in the Siena area, and a private company. Twenty-three teachers from diverse fields and 318 students from 15 classes were involved. The aim of the project was to improve scientific-technological teaching by providing schools with the support and materials necessary to understand some fundamental aspects of biotechnology. With this project we propose a model of close cooperation among various educational sectors with the goal of teaching junior and senior high school students some of the theory and practice of modern biotechnology.