STARing the sky in the face: Recognizing the constellations in a sky which does not have any

The analysis described here attempts to estimate the range within which we use our tendency to see a familiar shape in a disordered pattern (Pareidolia). The study starts with the proof that the stars visible to the naked eye are arranged following a Poisson distribution, a concept that I use to understand why, in the works of several artists, the stars appear so clustered that they form an excess in the number of possible constellations. This analysis should be considered only preliminary and will be completed soon by further investigation which I describe at the end of this paper

Storie di Soli e di Lune - racconti di sogni, racconti di scienza

In questo spettacolo col quale già da tempo mi esibisco in piccoli teatri, planetari, osservatori, scuole, centri di ricerca e associazioni culturali, approfitto di alcuni "fatti" scientifici per imbastire un discorso divulgativo-teatrale che si dipana attraverso monologhi, proiezioni di illustrazionie composizioni musicali chefanno da colonna sonora allo svolgersi dell'azionescenica. Mio scopo principaleè disorientarelo spettatore ponendolo di fronte al problema di capirese ciò a cui sta assistendo è da ritenersi concerto, spettacolo teatrale, mostra di illustrazioni, conferenza divulgativa o solo happening multimediale. In realtà, ciò che compio è proprio un’operazione divulgativa tesa a evidenziare la necessità di un dialogo quanto più intenso possibile tra i due ambiti "arte e scienza" ritenuti da sempre antitetici, così da consentire di apprezzare quando la dimensione sociale della scienza, quando la dimensione scientifica dell'arte e, in definitva, la dimensione umana del produrre teorie e opere artistiche alla ricerca spasmodica di una descrizione della realtà che sia sempre più precisa, rassicurante, bella

Bias genitoriale

Nell'ambito di "Col favore del buio", l’iniziativa divulgativa dell'INAF-Osservatorio di Bologna che si svolge perlopiù d'estate al telescopio storico da 60 cm di Loiano (Bo), abbiamo inserito per la prima volta una serie di incontri pilota dedicati ai bambini più piccoli (2-6 anni) con l'obiettivo di testare una attività che si intende ripetere in futuro dedicandole uno spazio più ampio nel calendario già molto ricco di incontri con il pubblico. In ciò che segue, descrivo questa esperienza che ho gestito in prima persona, soffermandomi sui risultati parziali ottenuti, nella speranza di stimolare una, spero, proficua discussione col pubblico e con chi ha già avviato da tempo iniziative del genere

Surf/furS

La seconda puntata della serie "RIcordi di Genitore 4" dedicata alla genesi del personaggio Martina Tremend

La Terra vista dalla Luna

In this article I will show how space art has also greatly helped astrophysics and space technology, allowing us to fi gure out what could not yet be photographed: the universe as it would appear when seen from other places in the Solar System. The amazing space illustrations of Étienne Trouvelot, Scriven Bolton, Lucien Rudaux and in particular those of Chesley Bonestell, besides their great artistic value, succeeded in convincing taxpayers of the importance of space missions. This particular use of art in a scientifi c project has at the time created a completely unexpected sociological dynamics that I will analyze using Merton’s Categories, casting new light on the possibility of a dialogue between art and science

‘Would you prefer not to?’ Resetting/resistance across literature, culture, and organizations

In this paper we put the concepts of reset, aprosdoketon and minor gesture to work in the context of organizational narratives. In particular we engage with two iconic characters of the genre of organizational fiction, Don Draper in the context of Mad Men TV series and the copyist, who is the main character of Bartleby, the Scrivener by Herman Melville. Through a series of textual and performative writings we explore the possibility of setting and resetting organizational narratives/genre. Moreover, we explore what happens when fictional characters from a TV series and a novel (Bartleby and Don Draper) meet us–three scholars working in an array of different fields (literary, methodology, education and organization studies) and how this meeting and interaction shapes our understandings of work, culture, and organizations

Exploring the Astronomical Knowledge of Italian Students: Surveying Middle Schools and Informal Courses

Kids receive most of their astronomical knowledge through three fonts: formal educations (schools), informal education (laboratories,scientific festivals and other out-school activities) and from TV, cinema movies and documentaries. In the first case, students have to learn astronomy from certified fonts (school books and others teaching tools) and their knowledge is verified by teachers. However, for younger students, deep competence of teachers in a specific topics of science is not usually requested. In the second case the situation is less homogeneous. Informal education is located in scientific structures (Universities, Planetarium, Observatories), scientific festivals or dedicated structures for science outreach and it is lead by researchers (with little if any educational preparation) or by members of associations for scientific popularization.The skills of these members vary a lot since one can find teachers, university or high school students or experts, that in the case of Astronomy are in numerous cases amateur astronomers. Moreover, an important source of informal education is found on internet, where one can found numerous science outreach blogs, facebook and web site. In this latter case the quality of fonts is very hard to evaluate. The aim of this work is to explore the astronomy knowledge and misconceptions in students of age range of about 10-13 and to compare two types of students: one attending only regular school lessons and the others attending also informal education. We tested the hypothesis that latter students are more motivated to go deeply in their astronomical education and should have a more precise astronomical knowledge. Data have been collected form 2014 to 2017 and the final sample regarded 1017 students.We proposed questionnaires with questions about Black Holes, Star life, Seasons and Moon phases

Workshop: Insegnare e raccontare il cielo e le stelle - Fare il punto per ripartire

In this talk we resume the results of a workshop which we have recently organized in collaboration with other colleagues (25-26 marzo 2014). Supported by various institutions, among them the Bologna Childresn’s Book Fair, which has hosted us in one of its stands, the peculiarity of the meeting was that it fi nally gave the possibility of a dialogue between astronomers, popularizers, teachers, pedagogues, psychologists and other specialists, concerning the didactics and popularization of astronomy for children between 2 and 12 years old. The meeting was a success and highlighted some very interesting aspects of the subject which we wish to present to the UAI audience