Chemophobia is a widely spread phenomenon in all strata of society, including high school students. Like adults, teenagers are exposed to the same environment and information sources that infuse an irrational fear toward chemistry and its influence in our society. The potential harm that hesitant positions against chemistry can have among the general public is sustained by the existing scientific literature, indicating that these positions are often based on wrong conceptions. This creates an urge to develop new approaches to counteract chemophobia among the general public and students in particular. Given the fact that secondary students are still in a learning stage, intervening at these early moments is a potential dissemination strategy. In this work, the influence of science outreach activities carried out by scholars at compulsory (aged 14–15) and pre-university (aged 17–18) levels is assessed in terms of chemophobic conceptions. To measure the shift in their conceptions, students answer questions before and after the activity. Results indicate that compulsory students are slightly more predisposed to have chemophobic conceptions than pre-university students. After the activity, the post-conceptions of both groups significantly changed regarding some topics, moving toward more receptive positions about chemistry. This effect was more evident among pre-university students, probably due to their stronger prior scientific backgrounds. Overall, this work presents evidence for the potential that science outreach activities have in fighting chemophobia at lower education levels.

中文翻译：

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科学推广活动对高中阶段化学恐惧观念的影响

化学恐惧症是一种在社会各阶层广泛传播的现象，包括高中生。与成年人一样，青少年也暴露在相同的环境和信息来源中，这些环境和信息来源对化学及其对我们社会的影响产生了非理性的恐惧。现有的科学文献证实了反对化学的犹豫立场可能对公众造成的潜在危害，这表明这些立场往往基于错误的概念。这催生了开发新方法来对抗公众尤其是学生的化学恐惧症的冲动。鉴于中学生仍处于学习阶段，在早期阶段进行干预是一种潜在的传播策略。在这项工作中，从化学恐惧概念的角度评估了义务教育阶段（14-15岁）和大学预科阶段（17-18岁）学者开展的科学推广活动的影响。为了衡量他们观念的转变，学生在活动之前和之后回答问题。结果表明，义务教育学生比大学预科学生更容易产生化学恐惧症。活动结束后，两组学生对某些话题的后观念发生了显着变化，对化学的态度变得更加容易接受。这种效应在大学预科生中更为明显，可能是因为他们之前有更强的科学背景。总体而言，这项工作提供了证据，证明科学推广活动在对抗较低教育水平的化学恐惧症方面具有潜力。