Maps Mi: First Results of a Participatory Science Process to Activate the Educating Community of a Suburb Against Black Carbon

What does black carbon mean? How would you explain it to another child/young person? Where is it found? How do you measure it? What effects does it have on people? Can you do something about it? What is the most beautiful place in your neighbourhood? The ugliest? Why? These are some of the questions that accompanied the first year of participatory research involving two classes from a primary school and three from a secondary school in the Milanese suburbs. The participatory science project that we are presenting here aims to involve the children and the educating community in an experiential type of journey that aims to raise awareness of the value of the scientific method and its applicability in everyday life. At the end of the period of confusion in which the population was exposed to the debate between science and fake news amplified by the pandemic emergency. To achieve these objectives, three different actors shared their expertise: through the application of IVAC methodologies -Investigation, Vision, Action, Change (Reid, A, Jensen, B.B, Nikel, J., & Simovska, V, 2008), fielded by the educators of the social cooperative ABCittà, the experience of investigation and data collection with a researcher from the toxicology department of the State University of Milan, finally, the educational researchers of the University of Milan Bicocca oversaw the application of metacognitive methodologies (Colman, A. M. 2018; Albanese, O, Doudin P. A. & D. Martin, 2002) aimed at participatory content construction and knowledge exchange between learners and a collaborative design approach with teachers (Desgagné, Bednarz, Lebuis, Poirier, & Couture 2001, Lyet 2014) to design and monitor development actions. At the end of the project's first year, the outcome was efficient knowledge of the phenomena, a greater sense of empowerment on the part of the students and active participation on the part of the educating community.