Advocacy and awareness: the care for our planet goes through these fundamental aspects and involves everyone, no one excluded. This is the worthy conclusion of a week of workshops that Sotacarbo researchers held in the schools of Carbonia with the students of the G.M. Angioy and Gramsci-Amaldi secondary schools.

The opportunity was the event “Science Week 2024” which, from Monday 23^rd to Friday 27^th of September, involved universities and research institutes across Europe through seminars, events and gameshows. The culmination of the event was “European Researchers’ Night” on Friday September 27^th: Sotacarbo, in particular, joined the initiative proposed by Frascati Scienza titled “LEAF – heaL thE plAnet’s Future”, a wake-up call for everyone to pay more attention to the state of the Earth’s health.

Over the course of the week, Sotacarbo researchers went back to school to offer two workshops based on the key concepts of sustainability and efficiency to students in grades two, three, four and five:

• “Sustainable Steps” (Passi Sostenibili); starting with the concepts of carbon footprint and ecological footprint, the students were confronted with three questions on CO₂ consumption in different situations, developing a discussion on the impact of consumption and awareness of their own choices.
• “Sota Energy House”; an interactive workshop inviting students to enter the world of engineering and ‘build’ a real energy-efficient miniature house, being able to choose the insulation (wool, cork, polystyrene), household appliances (TV, dishwasher, oven, refrigerator, washing machine) and lighting (LED, halogen, fluorescent bulbs). The result prompted another discussion with a subsequent focus on energy efficiency and new energy labels.

The results showed incredible involvement but, above all, creativity and imagination on the part of the students, proving that environmental-energy issues stimulate interest among the youngest, who are called upon to play their own part in it.

Professor Simona Santori of the Gramsci-Amaldi Institute emphasized the importance of these initiatives: “these workshops are relevant, interesting and help raise awareness among kids. Energy transition is also part of the new civic education guidelines. The students appreciate it and participate enthusiastically”.

The students themselves, at the end of the two experiments, confirmed their interest. In particular, the “Sota Energy House” workshop, which was interactive and creative, allowed them to get hands-on experience with the materials. The 3BLS pupils of the Gramsci-Amaldi Institute said at the end of the workshops: “It was particularly interesting because these things will also be useful to us in the future”, expressing a desire to repeat similar initiatives.

If youth are the future, it shows great promise, thanks also to the multitude of awareness-raising initiatives. The knowledge that is passed on can then also reach those who are less likely to grasp the urgency of a change of course in environmental and energy issues. This is why topics such as sustainability and energy transition will have to be a paradigm of civic and academic education in the coming decades. It is the demand the future addresses to those who, today, must work to build a better planet. EFenu/AOrsini