Marta Paz

Pursuing sustainable development is increasingly urgent due to resource depletion and environmental degradation, compounded by the need for a green energy transition requiring significant mineral resources. Traditional mining practices result in several environmental impacts, prompting the exploration of alternatives, like mining the ocean floor. This method offers a potentially less invasive way to obtain critical minerals. Notwithstanding, our understanding of the ocean ecosystem, which is crucial to Earth’s life support system, is still too limited. This study aimed to assess an educational intervention on sea mining for polymetallic nodules while improving scientific literacy and system thinking and supporting Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 4, 13, and 14. A pre-/post-intervention design was implemented with 17 adolescents (aged 12–16 years) from an underprivileged non-formal context. The mixed-methods approach involved role-playing and modelling activities focused on the question: “Do you agree with mining polymetallic nodules in deep-sea waters”? The Wilcoxon test revealed that the intervention changed participants’ opinions about the theme, showing a statistically significant difference in student responses before and after the intervention (Z = −2.165; p = 0.030). A content analysis showed enhanced argumentation, understanding of Earth’s subsystems, and decision-making abilities. These findings suggest that the educational resource positively impacted students’ scientific literacy on the topic. This approach can be extended to other contexts and inform future investigations.

O interesse e entusiasmo do público por diversos temas científicos, nomeadamente os relacionados com a astronomia, tem sido crescente e cada vez mais generalizado. Nos últimos 400 anos, desde Galileu, os astrónomos procuram observar e interpretar o universo, construindo telescópios cada vez mais poderosos e precisos. Estes incríveis instrumentos estendem as potencialidades de um dos nossos sentidos mais importantes, a visão, em direção a novos limites, transformando e aprimorando a nossa compreensão do cosmos. O telescópio espacial Hubble exerce um fascínio particular sobre o público de todas as idades e, dessa forma, contribui fortemente para a divulgação da ciência e da astronomia, pelas imagens que encantam o público em geral. O presente documento apresenta um panorama dos contributos do desenvolvimento tecnológico na divulgação da história da astronomia a partir de uma revisão de literatura, oferecendo uma reflexão sobre esse legado e a perspetiva de continuidade dessa história que desafia a humanidade.

The world is overcoming an unprecedented challenge with the COVID-19 pandemic’s worldwide spread. Epidemics and pandemics are part of history. The oldest records are related to the plague of Athens in 430 BC and throughout times numerous other diseases affected humankind, devastating societies. Nowadays, the global world allows rapid communication and potential spread of new pandemics. The Anthropocene epoch, in which humans significantly interfere in the Earth system, can also accelerate their emergence, forcing us to be innovative and proactive. Our enormous scientific and technological development is a huge advantage, providing us with knowledge and various tools to defeat the new incoming threats. Nevertheless, knowing the historical scientific facts is fundamental to understand the present and anticipating the future. Geoethics reflects on the values underlying behaviours and practices that interfere with the way human beings relate to the Earth system. It conceptualises an interdisciplinary approach within geosciences, history, philosophy and sociology and additionally it is closely related to sustainable development. Enhancing awareness of our role as responsible citizens and improving scientific knowledge are essential goals to achieve quality in education and the preservation of life on Earth. Historical scientific events must be harnessed to provide a more holistic and geoethical education.

Neurosciences are an emerging area of scientific knowledge, whose goal is to contribute to a better knowledge of the brain. Due to the complexity of the object of study, it is primarily an interdisciplinary domain, integrating multiple scientific areas, such as biology, chemistry, medicine or psychology. This work results from bibliographic review on the subject of neurosciences and the neurological bases underlying cognitive processes, addressing the processes involved in the construction of memory, learning or attention. It also presents possible bridges between neurosciences and education and neurosciences and artificial intelligence.