Innovazione nella didattica delle scienze nella scuola primaria: al crocevia fra discipline scientifiche e umanistiche

Si apre a partire dal prossimo numero la rubrica La Fisica per la Scuola dell’Obbligo. Non è una novità per la nostra rivista. Certo è che l’insegnamento/apprendimento della Fisica fin dalla scuola primaria è sempre più in primo piano: basti pensare all’attenzione crescente che si riserva alle indagini internazionali (IEA-TIMSS e OCSE-PISA in primo luogo) e ai risultati dei nostri studenti. Ancor più importante è l’ottica di verticalità in cui oggi vengono costruiti (o è auspicato che lo siano) i curricoli scolastici.Insomma questo spazio ci sembra un’esigenza sentita e condivisa dal mondo della scuola.Si apre questa rubrica con un contributo che eccezionalmente non è nella forma di proposta o di esperienza didattica, ma di riflessione e contemporaneamente di lancio di temi “caldi” e trasversali per i futuri contributi per una fascia di età così ampia e complessa. Si tratta di un articolo riguardo a un convegno sull’innovazione nell’insegnamento delle scienze nella scuola primaria tenutosi il 12 e 13 novembre 2010 presso l’Università di Modena e Reggio Emilia

A proposal about Rutherford Backscattering Spectrometry for a second level master in physics education

Most of the techniques for material science are based on quantum mechanics, since matter is studied in terms of interactions with its microscopic components (e.g. atoms, nucleuses and electrons) or aggregates of them (e.g. crystals, phonons). However, due to the strong orientation of the techniques to gain qualitative or quantitative information (doing measurements), they are often interpreted according to semi-classical or classical models (e.g. the effective mass for conduction of a charged particle, the electron gas in a metal, the phonon as a harmonic oscillator). In this sense, the analysis techniques can be introduced in physics education as a bridge between classical physics and quantum mechanics with its applications. Rutheford Backscattering Spectrometry (RBS) is an analysis technique largely used in material science and it constitutes a candidate technique for secondary school level or university students.The didactical proposal presented below follows our previous experience and research works about the introduction of the analysis techniques into the curriculum of secondary school and benefits from our direct involvement in the use of RBS for condensed matter analyses. The aim of the activity is to enable students to deal with simple, not trivial, RBS spectra and to discuss them in an appropriate scientific language. The materials were prepared for a course of the second level master in modern physics “Innovazione Didattica in Fisica e Orientamento” (Didactic Innovation in Physics and Orientation) for teacher training

An interesting classroom discussion: what is the right subject of the photo?

A photograph of the light spots of the ecplypse of the August 1999 is an occasion for a discussion about light propagation and the pinhole camera principle

A didactic proposal about Rutherford backscattering spectrometry with theoretic, experimental, simulation and application activities

Rutherford backscattering spectrometry is a nuclear analysis technique widely used for materials science investigation. Despite the strict technical requirements to perform the data acquisition, the interpretation of a spectrum is within the reach of general physics students. The main phenomena occurring during a collision between helium ions\u2014with energy of a few MeV\u2014and matter are: elastic nuclear collision, elastic scattering, and, in the case of non-surface collision, ion stopping. To interpret these phenomena, we use classical physics models: material point elastic collision, unscreened Coulomb scattering, and inelastic energy loss of ions with electrons, respectively. We present the educational proposal for Rutherford backscattering spectrometry, within the framework of the model of educational reconstruction, following a rationale that links basic physics concepts with quantities for spectra analysis. This contribution offers the opportunity to design didactic specific interventions suitable for undergraduate and secondary school students

A Proposal of VnR-Based Dynamic Modelling Activities to Initiate Students to Model-Centred Learning

We propose a laboratory learning pathway, suitable for secondary school up to introductory undergraduate level, employing the VnR dynamic modelling software. It is composed of three increasingly complex activities dealing with experimental work, model design and discussion

Primary Physical Science for Student Teachers at Kindergarten and Primary School Levels: Part I—Foundations of an Imaginative Approach to Physical Science

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RUTHERFORD BACKSCATTERING SPECTROMETRY: A LABORATORY DIDACTIC PATH ABOUT THE BASIC INTERPRETATION MODELS

Each time a new physical phenomenon is understood in depth, new techniques of analysis are produced, which employ the fresh knowledge to start new researches in unexplored field. Most of the techniques for material science are based on quantum mechanics, since matter is studied in terms of interactions with its microscopic components (e.g. atoms, nucleuses and electrons) or aggregates of them (e.g. molecules, crystals, phonons). However, due to the strong orientation of the techniques to gain qualitative or quantitative information (doing measurements), they are often interpreted according to semi-classical or classical models (e.g. the effective mass for conduction of a charged particle, the electron gas in a metal, the phonon as a harmonic oscillator etc.). In this sense, the analysis techniques can be introduced in physics education as a bridge between classical physics and quantum mechanics with its applications. Moreover, these techniques offer an opportunity to introduce stimulating topics of modern physics which in most cases constitute also a synthesis of various topics traditionally taught in separate contexts (mechanics, thermodynamics, electromagnetism etc).Rutheford Backscattering Spectrometry (RBS) is an analysis technique largely used in material science [1] and it constitutes a candidate technique for secondary school level students. It can be entirely understood and interpreted in terms of classical models and the teacher is free to deal with each concept also in terms of quantum mechanics. Moreover RBS can be an exciting subject for students since they can feel the experience, as in the research field, of interpreting a spectrum and obtaining structural and elemental information about an actual sample applying physical concepts and models.The didactic proposal that will be presented follows previous experience and research works about the introduction of the analysis techniques into the curriculum of secondary school [2-8] and benefits from a direct involvement in the use of RBS for condensed matter analyses. The aim of the activity is to enable students to deal with simple, not trivial RBS spectra and to discuss them in an appropriate scientific language. The materials were prepared for a course of the second level master in modern physics \u201cInnovazione Didattica in Fisica e Orientamento\u201d (Didactic Innovation in Physics and Orientation) for teacher training [9] and, subsequently, employed in various occasions of student involvement in modern physics and hands-on minds-on activities

AN APPROACH TO THE CONCEPT OF ENERGY FOR PRIMARY SCHOOL: DISCIPLINARY FRAMEWORK, ELEMENTS OF A DIDACTIC PATH AND ASSESSMENT SCALE

Hands-on and minds-on activities about teaching and learning the concept of energy in primary school will be presented.The word “energy”, even if already used by the children in everyday life, is not cited by the teacher during the lessons of the didactic path in order to build the underlying concept on scientific bases, unfolding all the basic aspects and avoiding misconceptions and misunderstandings. The concept of energy is constructed by starting from the cause-effect relationship and focusing on the differences of potentials (increases and decreases in potentials) of the extensive quantities involved in the process of interaction being analyzed. Subsequently, in order to lay the foundations for the concept of conservation, the relationship between potential differences and the associated extensive quantity currents is recognized, to build a (qualitative) budget law (relationships of direct or inverse proportionality): some increase in potential (effect) of an amount of an extensive quantity, at the expense of some reduction in potential (cause) of another amount of extensive quantity. The energy concept, then, arises from the identification of the “proportion” between two processes taking part in an interaction.The activities and the didactic materials experimented in a 5th grade classroom will be presented. Moreover, in order to evaluate the pupils’ progresses in the development of the concept of energy, linguistic criteria to analyze worksheets and conversations will be introduced together with some results which highlight evidence how children express their thoughts using “signs” that the teacher can then use to create a link between the concrete experiential plane and the conceptual one

An industrial educational laboratory at Ducati Foundation: narrative approaches to mechanics based upon continuum physics

ABSTRACTThis is a description of the conceptual foundations used for designing a novel learning environment for mechanics implemented as an Industrial Educational Laboratory – called Fisica in Moto (FiM) – at the Ducati Foundation in Bologna. In this paper, we will describe the motivation for and design of the conceptual approach to mechanics used in the lab – as such, the paper is theoretical in nature. The goal of FiM is to provide an approach to the teaching of mechanics based upon imaginative structures found in continuum physics suitable to engineering and science. We show how continuum physics creates models of mechanical phenomena by using momentum and angular momentum as primitive quantities. We analyse this approach in terms of cognitive linguistic concepts such as conceptual metaphor and narrative framing of macroscopic physical phenomena. The model discussed here has been used in the didactical design of the actual lab and raises questions for an investigation of student learning of mechanics i..

Primary Physical Science for Student Teachers at Kindergarten and Primary School Levels: Part II—Implementation and Evaluation of a Course

AbstractThis is the second of two papers on a novel physical science course for student teachers that develops and uses an imaginative approach to Primary Physical Science Education. General philosophical, cognitive, developmental, and scientific issues have been presented in the first paper; here, we briefly recapitulate the most important aspects. In the main part of the current paper, we present in some detail concrete elements of the implementation of the course at three Italian universities where Primary Physical Science Education has been taught for more than 6 years. After a brief description of the course structure, we discuss which parts of macroscopic physics are taught, and how this is done in lectures and labs. Most importantly, we show how the science is entwined with methods related to pedagogy and didactics that (1) help our students approach the science and (2) can be transferred quite readily to teaching children in kindergarten and primary school. These methods include the design of direct physical experience of forces of nature, embodied simulations, writing and telling of stories of forces of nature, and design and performance of Forces-of-Nature Theater plays. The paper continues with a brief description of feedback from former students who have been teaching for some time, and an in-depth analysis of the research and teaching done by one of the students for her master thesis. We conclude the paper by summarizing aspects of both the philosophy and the design of the course that we believe to be of particular value