Approach to physical concepts in preschool and primary school

The aim of this paper is to present the results of some physics experimentations carried out in preschool and primary schools by university students in “Scienze della Formazione Primaria” during the preparation of their master theses. The main idea of the proposed activities is to test how the suggestions of the recent didactic research concerning new approaches to physical concepts and new didactic methodologies can promote the young pupils reasoning and learning process. In this paper the experimentations are analyzed using the rich documentation provided in the thesis through the drawings of the pupils and the records of the verbal and written expressions, often obtained by audio and video registrations. The presented results provide also new indication useful for the future didactic research

Synthesis and Characterization of New Lithium and Boron Based Metal Organic Frameworks with NLO Properties for Application in Neutron Capture Therapy

In this work, we synthetized and characterized new crystalline materials with theranostic properties, i.e., they can be used both as bio-sensors and for "drug delivery". The two solid crystalline compounds studied are Metal Organic Frameworks and have formulas Li[(C6H12O6)2B]\ub72H2O and Li[(C4H2O6)2B]\ub75.5H2O. They can be synthetized both with natural isotopes of Li and B or with 6Li and 10B isotopes, that can be explored for Neutron Capture Therapy (NCT) for anti-cancer treatment. The presence of chiral organic molecules, such as mannitol and tartaric acid, provides the NLO property to the crystals and thus their capability to generate the Second Harmonic, which is useful for applications as bio-sensors. The two compounds were characterized with X-ray Diffraction and the Second Harmonic Generation (SHG) responses were estimated by theoretical calculations, and the results were compared with experimental measurements of powdered samples. In order to test the behavior of such compounds under thermal neutron irradiation, we preliminary exposed one of the two compounds in the e_LiBANS facility at the Torino Physics Department. Preliminary results are reported

X-ray tomography of large wooden artworks: The case study of "Doppio corpo" by Pietro Piffetti

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