Teaching Young People to Be Curious, to Observe the Environment, to Think Critically

The Observatoire Océanologique de Villefranche-sur-Mer (OOV) is one of thirty partners participating to the outreach project MEDITES (Méditerranée Diffusion des Techniques et des Sciences). The aim of this innovating project is to bring scientific culture to secondary school students socially or territorially distant from this type of culture, by means of different learning paths conceived and carried out by researchers in collaboration with professionals in the scientific mediation.

In particular the OOV staff works in tandem with animators of the association Les Petits Débrouillardsto introduce students to oceanography.

Each of the ten sessions of our learning paths includes a scientific part, based on research topics of the OOV, and a hands-on part, consisting of games, experiments or dynamic debates to better understand the scientific topics. Mixing these two approaches is helpful to maintain concentration, to have fun and consequently reduce the gap with science, a real challenge in the case of students with social problems.

The ultimate goal of this method is not only to teach oceanography, but rather to teach to observe what surrounds us, to be curious, to ask questions, to think critically, to experiment and test in order to find the answers to these questions by yourself.

In particular one session of our learning paths is carried out also in collaboration with the astronomers and the géophysicists of the Observatoire de la Côte d’Azur(OCA), in order to make the students aware of some common points between oceanography, astronomy and geosciences : the observation of the environment with instruments more or less sophisticated, and to the scientific approach.

The most interesting aspect of this project is to monitore these classes throughout the year. During this time we have seen them mature in their way of thinking and that we could arouse the curiosity of these young students to make them more resourceful.