arXiv subjects

Enzo Bonacci

Publications and source records attributed to Enzo Bonacci.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2023

The International Space Station (ISS) Contest as STEM Educational Project

In the years 2015-2018, the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research and the Italian Ministry of Defense proposed the joint initiative "Space for Your Future. The ISS: Innovatio, Scientia, Sapientia" in partnership with the Italian Space Agency. It was a competition addressed to secondary school students and aimed at developing innovative experiments to be conducted on the International Space Station, whose acronym (ISS) is the same of the Latin words "Innovatio, Scientia, Sapientia". Regardless of the odds of winning, "Space for Your Future" became a successful STEM educational project implemented in numerous schools. We illustrate how that Astronomy contest fostered a valid constructivist learning, a fruitful participatory science, and vast scientific research. We discuss, in particular, the activities of two teams of pupils from the Scientific High School "Giovanni Battista Grassi" in Latina (seat of the Planetarium "Livio Gratton") who participated within the thematic area No. 3 "Test the Sciences in Space". They all worked on chemical tests, suitable for the ISS microgravity, under the tutoring of Francesco Giuliano (Province Manager of the IYA 2009 and the IYC 2011 in Latina). The key reference is a talk given in the 104th annual congress of the Italian Physical Society at the University of Calabria (September 17-21, 2018) together with an invited lecture held in the 13th European Researchers' Night by Frascati Scienza (September 28, 2018).

physics.ed-ph↗

arXiv2022

Mathematical Insights in the Pioneering Educational Project FSTF

During their pre-university year, six brilliant and motivated students joined the educational project "From Soccerene to Fullerene" (acronym FSTF) proposed by five teachers from the Departments of Physical Education and of Mathematics and Physics at the Scientific High School "G.B. Grassi" in Latina (Italy). The pupils investigated the fullerene buckyball (C60) also known as soccerene for its football-shaped structure (truncated icosahedron). From plastic sheets they cut twelve pentagons and twenty hexagons, with a calculated edge, sewing them together on a polystyrene sphere as faces of a soccer ball; they repeated the same operation twice, making two almost identical soccer-like balls. That multidisciplinary experience started on March 2013 and ended on June 2013. It was satisfactorily discussed in the 2013 school-leaving examination and raised a great interest both in the 100th national conference of the Italian Physical Society (Pisa, 2014) and in the ATINER's 9th annual international conference EMS (Athens, 2015). Now we briefly illustrate the FSTS, focusing on its mathematical features.

math.HO↗

arXiv2021

Proposals for High School Teaching of Quantum Physics

In the Italian education system, secondary students (ages 14-19) face the foundations of quantum physics during the final term of scientific high school (pre-university year). The Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research (MIUR) has remarked its importance in the syllabus to address the high school exit examination (30% of the 5th year physics course) but, due to limited learning time and intrinsic difficulty, this branch of physics is neither assimilated nor appreciated as it should. We wish to illustrate six didactic suggestions focused on learning motivation, emerged during a 17-year long teaching experience, which could help to tackle the main problems found. The key reference is the talk "Why nobody understands quantum mechanics?" given in 2013 at the 2nd Rome workshop "Science Perception" together with a concise and evocative poster outlining the history of quanta. Other useful resources are a 2015 conceptual diagram and four invited lectures held in the years 2010-2017.

physics.ed-ph↗

arXiv2021

On Teaching Quantum Physics at High School

In the Italian education system, secondary students (ages 14-19) are confronted with the foundations of quantum physics during the final term of scientific high school (pre-university year). The Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research (acronym MIUR) has remarked its importance in the syllabus to address the high school exit examination (30 percent of the 5th year physics course) but, due to limited learning time and intrinsic difficulty, this branch of physics is neither assimilated nor appreciated as it should. We wish to illustrate six didactic suggestions focused on learning motivation, emerged during a 17-year long teaching experience, which could help to tackle the main problems found. The key references are two peer-reviewed talks given, respectively, in 2018 at the "6th Annual International Conference on Physics" by the Athens Institute for Education and Research and in 2013 at the 2nd Rome workshop "Science Perception" by the Roma Tre University together with a concise and evocative poster outlining the history of quanta. Other useful resources are a 2015 conceptual diagram and four invited lectures held in the years 2010-2017.

physics.ed-ph↗