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We introduce Ricerca Operativa Applicazioni Reali (ROAR; in English, Real Applications of Operations Research), a three-year project for higher secondary schools. Its main aim is to improve students’ interest, motivation, and skills related to Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics disciplines by integrating mathematics and computer science through operations research. ROAR offers examples and problems closely connected with students’ everyday life or with the industrial reality, balancing mathematical modeling and algorithmics. The project is composed of three teaching units, addressed to grades 10, 11, and 12. The implementation of the first teaching unit took place in Spring 2021 at the scientific high school IIS Antonietti in Iseo (Brescia, Italy). In particular, in this paper, we provide a full description of this first teaching unit in terms of objectives, prerequisites, topics and methods, organization of the lectures, and digital technologies used. Moreover, we analyze the feedback received from students and teachers involved in the experimentation, and we discuss advantages and disadvantages related to distance learning that we had to adopt because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Funding: E. Taranto and G. Colajanni were partially supported by the research projects “Programma Ricerca di Ateneo UNICT 2020-22 linea 2,” “EEEP&DLaD,” and “OMNIA” of the University of Catania. Supplemental Material: The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/ited.2022.0271 .

Operations Research (OR) is a branch of applied mathematics usually taught in undergraduate and graduate courses at the university level. Nevertheless, during the last years, various initiatives have been developed to introduce some topics to younger students. These initiatives usually aim to improve students’ interest and motivation towards mathematics and other STEM disciplines. They also allow students to acquire new skills and abilities as well as increase their awareness of a discipline with several applications. In this review, we analyze the state of the art related to Grades 9–12. We present and classify local, national and international OR educational initiatives we were able to collect. Then, we compare their objectives and focus, topics introduced, teaching methods, instruments and software chosen, and feedback received. Finally, we discuss some of the main current international and national guidelines for mathematics education of Grades 9–12, showing how OR could be suitable to fulfil many of these.

AIROYoung is the Young Researchers Chapter of AIRO (Italian Association of Operations Research). In this work, we focus on the AIROYoung Workshop, an annual event which has been reuniting young researchers constituting this community from 2017. Describing all the editions of the initiative, we highlight the main guidelines we have been following so far to organize it (e.g., no registration fee, grants for free accommodation, no parallel sessions, and a look to sustainability). We analyze surveys filled by participants to present qualitative and quantitative data about our workshops and to show how interest and attendance have increased through the years. We talk about some innovations we have introduced to improve quality (e.g., the PhD school “from young researchers to young researchers” and the pitch talk session). We then share our personal opinion and, last but not least, we invite young researchers to join in the preparation of the next AIROYoung Workshops.