Abstract. One of the primary activities of the Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology; INGV) is the production of resources concerning educational and outreach projects in geophysics and natural hazard topics. This activity is aimed at transferring, periodically, results at the forefront of ongoing research to the public through an intense and comprehensive plan for scientific dissemination. Over the past 15 years, graphic and visual communication have become essential tools for supporting institutional and research activities. In this paper, we describe successful INGV team experiences resulting from a close relationship and collaborative work between graphic designers and research scientists. The main goal of the projects devoted to the general public, through the creation of a museum exhibition or the production of descriptive brochures, is to support scientists in conveying their message and making concepts fruitful, easier to understand but also fully enjoyable thanks to the emotional involvement that images may generate. Through a careful composition of signs and images, and through the use of different visual tools (colours, form and lettering) on different media (print, video and web), the graphics and editorial products together create a strong INGV-style identity, making it easily recognizable in any educational and outreach project. A full project product package might include a logo or other artwork, organized text and pure design elements such as shapes and colours, which serve the purpose of unifying the whole set. Colour is used not only to help the project logo to stand out from the international overview but, in our case, also to generate a unifying return across all INGV sections. A recent and highly stimulating experience concerned the creation of edu-games, specifically designed for scientific dissemination, through a close collaboration between INGV graphic designers and their reference scientific community. The edu-games were designed as an effective combination of educational content and playful communicative aspects, leading the young players to learn while having fun.

La Società Geologica Italiana, i curatori scientifici (Chief, Associates), e la Casa Editrice non sono responsabili delle opinioni espresse e delle affermazioni pubblicate negli articoli: l'autore/i è/sono il/i solo/i responsabile/i.

<p>One of the primary activity of the Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV) is the production of resources concerning educational and outreach projects in geophysics and natural hazard topics. This activity is aimed at transferring, periodically, results at the forefront of ongoing research to the public through an intense and comprehensive plan for scientific dissemination. Over the past few years, much attention has also been devoted to the production of scientific games or edu-games, which is an efficient combination of educational content and playful communicative aspects, designed with the aim of letting children and youngsters learn while having fun. It has been demonstrated, in fact, that learning through games and, in this case, through drawing stimulates further contacts in the brain and is therefore simpler for both people with disabilities but also for those without.</p><p>In the last two years we presented two games (Escape Volcano and GeoTrivial) and, in light of the achieved success, we decided to propose a new game: VISUAL GEOGAME. Is a revisited Visual game based on earth sciences considered in its entirety (i.e. geology, seismology, volcanology, space earth etc.etc.)</p><p>The main purpose was to create a game which might be specifically dedicated to students requiring learning support: hence the choice of the Visual Game. Scholastic inclusion is very important especially in this period during which the use of technology overrides human contact. The drawing is a quick learning method and, above all the team games are essential for inclusion of people with disabilities.</p><p>The game is very simple: participants are divided into teams of at least 2 people for a maximum of 4 teams. Tokens are placed face down on the billboard and each has a different score signed on.</p><p>Each team must choose a marker and place it into starting box. They draw a card from the deck and on the basis of the category repredented on the card they have to draw it. There are 3 categories: 1) glossary (move 1 position); 2) tools of the trade (move 2 position); 3) places (move 3 position). If the team guess the draw, the will move as much as is the category score and keep the token.</p><p>Morover, on the billboard there are bonus boxes. Is the team fall in one of it they have to draw an action. If the guess they can decide to back an opponent team of their choice.</p><p>IF YOU CAN DRAW IT, YOU CAN LEARN IT!!</p>

<p>An analysis of the perceived image of science, scientists and inventions was conducted over  drawings made in 2010 by children for a calendar competition promoted by INGV in Italian primary schools. A similar competition was proposed in 2020 with a related purpose of analyzing the image children have of the world of science, its potential and future perspective.</p><p>The title of the 2010 competition was "<em>Scienziato anche io! </em><em>La Scienza e gli scienziati visti dai bambini</em>” - I'm a scientist too! Science and scientists from the children point of view-</p><p>Children were asked to realize a drawing regarding: 1) How do you imagine a scientist? How do you imagine the daily activities of a researcher? 2) What is the invention you consider the most important among all those you know? 3) What would you invent?</p><p>We collected 986 drawings, realized by 6 - 10 years old children  from 48 schools distributed throughout the Italian territory.</p><p>For the 2020 competition we proposed: “<em>La Scienza in crescita, immaginare la scienza del Futuro</em>” - Growing Science, let’s imagine the science of the Future!-</p><p>We asked children to develop the following topics: 1) How do you figure a scientist life? 2) How do you imagine the daily research activities in the future? 3) and what tools will research work with? 4) if you were a scientist what would you invent?</p><p>In this case, the collection of drawings took place mainly during the months in which Italian schools were forced to distance learning because of the Covid pandemic crisis. Despite the difficulties, 28 primary schools participated by sending 350 drawings.</p><p>Drawings were coded and values stored in data sheets. A similar classification scheme was designed in order to be able to synthetically describe these sets of images and analyze it.  A coarse-grained, quantitative analysis were conducted on both sets of data in order to test and tune the classification scheme, as well as to infer some considerations which may would be comparable with studies in literature.</p><p>Work we present and compare the results of the two datasets set apart by ten years, highlighting differences, similarities, convergences. Do boys and girls image a scientist in the same way? and what are their relationships with science and technology? Do stereotypical images of science and scientists persist, or something is changing? Is there a gap between children’s perceptions and scientists’ reality? and how can this gap be filled? Has something changed in ten years?</p><p>From the data, a generally positive picture of the work of scientists emerge as well as a great level of confidence in the potential of science, capable to respond to needs and problems of the humanity and of the environment in which we live.</p><p>What arises from children's drawings has ethical, societal and social implications on global problems investing issues at the intersection between science, humanities, and social sciences, and provides us a direct and unconventional approach to analyze how we convey our science - a strategic topic for a suitable future of the humanity - to the players of the world of tomorrow.</p>

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