The Impact of the “Third Mission” of Universities and Research Institutions on Physics Education in Secondary Schools

Because of the increasing importance of the so called “third mission”, the number of activities toward the public, conducted at various scales by individual scientists, research institutions and universities, is steadily increasing. Educational programs developed by universities and research institutions for secondary schools have also been promoted. This contribution examines the opportunities and challenges that the interaction with research environments is having on physics education in secondary schools, starting from the interactions that the Physics department of University of Calabria has established with schools through extracurricular programs and citizen science projects, often combined with work-based learning programs, recently introduced in Italian schools by the recent reform of secondary education.