Promoting the Collaboration between Schools, Research Institutions, and Local Associations: the 2022 European Week at Liceo Copernico in Bologna as a Case Study

The international relationships and interactions developed by secondary school students during the intercultural exchanges offered by their schools are precious assets in themselves, but can be further embellished if effective and functional collaborations on common educational grounds are established between schools networks, research institutions present on the territory, and local cultural associations. The chance offered to visiting foreign students to interact, learn and collaborate with their host peers on socio-cultural and internationally shared research topics is a way of making the experience of intercultural exchange an important moment of growth, acceptance, and awareness of similarities and differences between countries. The successful activities implemented during the European Week organized in Bologna (IT) will be presented. The European Initiative took place in April 2022 and was developed on the collaboration among three High schools (Italian, Hungarian and Belgium), researchers of three institutes belonging to the Italian National Research Council, and the NGO who manages the Sulfur Museum in Perticara (Rimini - IT). The proposed activities and the topics addressed were focused on the European challenges linked to the environment and the sustainable use of natural resources from Earth. In particular, they concerned: 1) the path towards the ecological transition; 2) the critical issues and challenges associated with the exploitation of raw materials and 3) the historical and socio-cultural aspects related to mining activities present in the area until very recently. The collaboration between the different sides of the knowledge triangle gave rise to the awareness increase among youngsters on the necessity of a mind-set change to go on towards a more sustainable society.