The PLS-Project (Piano Lauree Scientifiche) is a national project that started in 2004 on the initiative of MIUR together with Association of the Deans of the Italian Faculties of Science and Confindustria. The project aims to:

 

• promoting enrolments to Scientific Degree Courses (by supporting gender balance) through guidance activities that render high school students the main actors in the leaving of scientific disciplines;
• reducing University drop-outs and improving the students’ performances by introducing innovative instruments and didactic methods;
• organizing training, supporting and supervising activities for the tutors of the basic disciplines in order to: identify the students’ difficulties and being able to fix them; organize the didactic material for the tutoring activities; develop supervising methods in order to identify an effective tutoring activity;
• organizing self-evaluation activities for the High School students in order to verify their knowledge and skills. This will help them to make a conscious choice of their Bachelor Courses;
• offer to the high school science teachers the opportunity for, in service training, a professional growth through the participation to PLS activities jointly promoted with the University.

 

The “PLS method” wants the students and the teachers to have an active role in the promoted activities. The laboratory is the main instrument for reaching this goal. By “laboratory” is meant a learning method that allows the students to be protagonists of an experimental approach to science. The strict cooperation between School and University lecturers in the planning of the laboratory activities is the distinctive element of the PLS-Project and that promotes the development of the interaction between the School and the University system. These activities allow the PLS to flank the High School students during their studies in order to success in their future Scientific Degree Course.

 

The PLS activities, held in every University with a Faculty of Science, follow the PLS Guidelines according to six main actions:

ACTION 1 – Enrolement orientation by supporting gender balance

ACTION 2 – Drop-outs reduction

ACTION 3 – Training, support and supervising of tutor activities

ACTION 4 – Laboratory activities for basic sciences teaching

ACTION 5 – Self-evaluation activities

ACTION 6 – Teachers training

 

Useful links for more information:

- PLS Offical Website
- PLS-Physics, University of Tor Vergata
- PLS-Materials Science, University of Tor Vergata
- History of PLS, from the beginning to 2015