Revolution in a comic strip: Gasparazzo and the identity of southern migrants in Turin, 1969-1975

Between 1969 and 1975, in Turin, a social movement with migrants from southern Italy as its protagonists addressed the issues of working conditions in the automobile plants, and housing and living standards in the city's overcrowded working-class neighbourhoods. Southern migrants, from different regions and speaking sometimes mutually incomprehensible dialects, forged a collective identity as Meridionali – “southerners” – and claimed recognition as fully fledged citizens of Turin's industrial society. This identity-building was captured in the making through the satirical cartoons featuring Gasparazzo, the character of a southern worker at FIAT who struggled daily with the alienation of work, the arrogance of supervisors, the repression enforced by the police, and, back in the south, the backwardness of the social system. Although the publication of Gasparazzo ended abruptly in 1972 the qualities of the cartoon character continued to resonate in succeeding years. As militancy waned and the social movement started to crumble, Gasparazzo came to symbolize the nostalgic model of a working-class hero rather than any actual southerner in the plant

Enhancement of electron spin lifetime in GaAs crystals: the benefits of dichotomous noise

The electron spin relaxation process in n-type GaAs crystals driven by a fluctuating electric field is investigated. Two different sources of fluctuations are considered: (i) a symmetric dichotomous noise and (ii) a Gaussian correlated noise. Monte Carlo numerical simulations show, in both cases, an enhancement of the spin relaxation time by increasing the amplitude of the external noise. Moreover, we find that the electron spin lifetime versus the noise correlation time: (i) increases up to a plateau in the case of dichotomous random fluctuations, and (ii) shows a nonmonotonic behaviour with a maximum in the case of bulks subjected to a Gaussian correlated noise.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figure

An Inquiry-based approach to the Franck-Hertz experiment

The practice of scientists and engineers is today exerted within interdisciplinary contexts, placed at the intersections of different research fields, including nanoscale science. The development of the required competences is based on an effective science and engineering instruction, which should be able to drive the students towards a deeper understanding of quantum mechanics fundamental concepts and, at the same time, strengthen their reasoning skills and transversal abilities. In this study we report the results of an inquiry-driven learning path experienced by a sample of 12 electronic engineering undergraduates engaged to perform the Franck-Hertz experiment. Before being involved in this experimental activity, the students received a traditional lecture-based instruction on the fundamental concepts of quantum mechanics, but their answers to an open-ended questionnaire, administered at the beginning of the inquiry activity, demonstrated that the acquired knowledge was characterized by a strictly theoretical vision of quantum science, basically in terms of an artificial mathematical framework having very poor connections with the real world. The Franck Hertz experiment was introduced to the students by starting from the problem of finding an experimental confirmation of the Bohr’s postulates asserting that atoms can absorb energy only in quantum portions. The whole activity has been videotaped and this allowed us to deeply analyse the student perception’s change about the main concepts of quantum mechanics. We have found that the active participation to this learning experience favored the building of cognitive links among student theoretical perceptions of quantum mechanics and their vision of quantum phenomena, within an everyday context of knowledge. Furthermore, our findings confirm the benefits of integrating traditional lecture-based instruction on quantum mechanics with learning experiences driven by inquiry-based teaching strategies

An inquiry-based approach to the Franck-Hertz experiment

The practice of scientists and engineers is today exerted within interdisciplinary contexts, placed at the intersections of different research fields, including nanoscale science. The development of the required competences is based on an effective science and engineering instruction, which should be able to drive the students towards a deeper understanding of quantum mechanics fundamental concepts and, at the same time, strengthen their reasoning skills and transversal abilities. In this study we report the results of an inquiry-driven learning path experienced by a sample of 12 electronic engineering undergraduates engaged to perform the Franck-Hertz experiment. Before being involved in this experimental activity, the students received a traditional lecture-based instruction on the fundamental concepts of quantum mechanics, but their answers to an open-ended questionnaire, administered at the beginning of the inquiry activity, demonstrated that the acquired knowledge was characterized by a strictly theoretical vision of quantum science, basically in terms of an artificial mathematical framework having very poor connections with the real world. The Franck Hertz experiment was introduced to the students by starting from the problem of finding an experimental confirmation of the Bohr’s postulates asserting that atoms can absorb energy only in quantum portions. The whole activity has been videotaped and this allowed us to deeply analyse the student perception’s change about the main concepts of quantum mechanics. We have found that the active participation to this learning experience favored the building of cognitive links among student theoretical perceptions of quantum mechanics and their vision of quantum phenomena, within an everyday context of knowledge. Furthermore, our findings confirm the benefits of integrating traditional lecture-based instruction on quantum mechanics with learning experiences driven by inquiry-based teaching strategies

Teacher professional development in the context of the “Open Discovery of STEM laboratories” project: Is the MOOC methodology suitable for teaching physics?

The "Open Discovery of STEM Laboratories" (ODL) project, funded by the European Erasmus+ KA2 program, was aimed at introducing the use of MOOCs in school curricula. In particular, it fostered teacher collaboration in creating and using micro-MOOCs for the inclusion of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) online remote or virtual laboratories in the everyday teaching practice. The project focused on teachers, educators and curriculum designers with the aim to strengthen their profile by supporting them to deliver high quality teaching practices and to adopt new methods and tools. Thanks to the project, in service and pre-service teachers had the opportunity to extend their knowledge about the inquiry-based science teaching approach, improve both digital skills and pedagogical competences, experience international collaborative work, explore attractive open education resources helpful to design creative lessons on STEM topics. In this contribution, we focus our attention on the results from the ODL teacher training in Italy, showing the valuable feedback collected by teachers on the impact of the ODL pedagogical approach on Physics education at secondary school, highlighting strengths and possible weaknesses of the proposed methodology. The feedback to the ODL experience provided by both teachers and students during the multiplier events, in the summer school and after the first pilot-studies in the classroom, was very positive. Experiencing micro-MOOCs' approach has been reported by the teachers as a very effective strategy for increasing students' motivation to learn physics more meaningfully. Thanks to the ODL methodology, student understanding of physics concepts has been achieved within a multidisciplinary learning context which also supports the development of transversal abilities, communication and reasoning skills. The ODL learning activities provided the students with the opportunity to develop a large range of complementary competencies, such as working in groups, interpreting and evaluating experimental data, designing models, facing and solving everyday problems, which are all very relevant in physics education

Informal physics teaching for a better society: a mooc-based and context-driven experience on learning radioactivity

The general objective of teaching physics is to provide the learners with useful knowledge, in terms of both interdisciplinary scientific concepts and practical problem-solving skills. In this work, we report the experimental evidence, collected during a first year physics class in an upper secondary technical school, for the urgent necessity to adopt an informal and inquiry-based strategy to teach physics effectively, in particular to all those students living in degraded socio-economic environments. Within the pedagogical framework of "Learning by Doing" and the paradigm "Learning by Teaching", we have explored the benefits of the students' participation to an informal ICT-based and inquiry-driven learning experience about radioactivity. Subsequently, the same students attended, as scientific communicators, a national science exhibition where the majority of the secondary schools in the region presents their scientific exhibits. About three months after the participation to the scientific exhibition, the students answered to a questionnaire about radioactivity. Their answers have been analysed in comparison with those provided by a control group of students who attended a traditional lecture-based instruction. A significant improvement in the memorization of the main aspects concerning a radioactive decay, such as the definition of isotope, particle and electromagnetic radiation, the understanding of the radioactivity process at microscopic level, as well as a stronger view of the useful aspect of radioactivity in the everyday life have been definitely achieved by the students involved in this study