The Italian Earth's Science Olympiad: a reflection on results of first edition

Teresita Gravina (a,b), Susanna Occhipinti (a,c), Vincenzo Boccardi (a) & Fabio Fantini (a)
(a) Associazione Nazionale Insegnanti di Scienze Naturali, via Mezzocannone 8,80134 Napoli. (b) Universita  degli Studi Guglielmo Marconi, via Plinio 44, 00193 Roma. (c) Universita  degli Studi di Camerino. Corresponding author e-mail: teresita.gravina@istruzione.it

The Italian National Association of Science Teachers (ANISN), established in 1979, aims to promote excellent performance in science among students. For this reason, annually the ANISN organizes a national competition for high school students. The 14th edition was held in 2016: 500 Italian schools took part in this contest. Within all them, 3000 students participated in the regional phases, while 129 students achieved the national phases. For the first time 16-19 years old students could decide to participate in two different competitions focusing on Biology or Earth Sciences. This article resumes the results of the first year of Italian Earth Sciences Olympiad, aims at drawing the state of art of Earth Sciences competition for students in Italy and suggests some reflections for teachers in order to address students interested in participating in this competition.

Earth Sciences, Students Competition, Science Curriculum.