Target group(s):
- Pupils and school levels involved:
- Primary school pupils (6 to 11/12 years of age)
- General secondary education (11/12 to end of compulsory education or even beyond)
- Vocational or technical secondary schools
- Further Education, Higher Education (post 16)
- Educational personnel:
- Teachers
- Teacher trainers of science / technology
- Pedagogical advisers, inspectors
- Other: bambini delle scuole elementari e ragazzi delle medie per i 12 spettacoli annuali di Avventure nella scienza
Frequency: Activity fully integrated in the academic term
Number of people directly concerned by the initiative: Between 20 and 100 people
SummaryL'iniziativa, avviata nei 2003 dai docenti Falasca, Cimenis, Martini con una quindicina di ragazzi, si è sviluppata negli anni successivi e oggi partecipano 40 ragazzi della scuola-, buona parte del biennio, ma anche i veterani di classe terza e quarta. Gli incontri collettivi settimanali sono uno o due-, sempre al pomeriggio, fuori orario di lezione. Le attività sono anche svolte in molti momenti informali, con gruppi ristretti, a seconda dei bisogni e dell'entusiasmo che via via emergono. Il senso del progetto si può riassumere brevemente riportando l'intestazione del Portale stesso: 'Osservare, eseguire esperimenti, scoprire. Lasciarsi stupire da ciò che esiste e che si trasforma. E fare tutto questo insieme, studenti e docenti, con serenità, aiutandosi a sorridere agli altri e a tornare a casa con uno sguardo di tenerezza. Questi sono i significati del nostro Portale'. Quindi il Portale è un luogo d'incontro, che valorizza le tematiche scientifiche e le tecnologie informatiche consentendo ai ragazzi di partecipare ad attività educative corrispondenti ai loro bisogni di socialità, in cui si sentono a proprio agio. Si documentano nel portale: 1) alcuni nuovi esempi di Problem Solving sperimentali, eseguiti mediante le metodologie di Novak - Gowin - Johnstone; 2) alcuni esempi di mappe concettuali; 3) gli esperimenti di 'Magic Science', riprodotti o inventati dal gruppo di lavoro; 4) le fotografie dei dodici spettacoli annuali di 'Avventure nelle scienze', in cui i quaranta ragazzi dell'ITIS si esibiscono in dimostrazioni scientifiche spettacolari a favore di bambini di quinta elementare - prima media provenienti dalle scuole del territorio. La crescita nella motivazione e la partecipazione attiva sono i risultati che raggiungiamo, in un'azione complessiva che collega più versanti educativi: l'utilizzo delle TIC, la collaborazione docenti-studenti nel preparare esperimenti, l'apprendimento tra pari.
Person interviewed: Prof. Falasca
General information
What is the percentage of students in the schools studying science?
In this kind of vocational school Chemistry is taught to students only during the I and II school year. Thanks to the initiative some students keep to study chemistry over the mandatory age, in addition to the mandatory school hours.
Describe briefly the initiative. What are its objectives? What are its main innovative issues?
The web portal for Chemistry and Science Education has been created in 2003 and it is still under development. It is a complex project of shared work and experiences, cultural and scientific animation, experimentation of new learning and teaching techniques. Some activities have been realised by the working group and documented on the web site: experiments, discussion and solution of scientific problems, realisation of performances about the magic of science, translations of scientific articles and realisation of conceptual maps, documentation of activities linked to other science projects.
Dimension of the initiative
Is your initiative, project, action or activity, a stand alone thing or is it part of a wider mechanism such as a network of pilot schools at regional, national, international or European level? If so, which one? If possible, provide a URL to get more information about the wider mechanism.
The school is a part of a network of schools officially created at local level in order to improve science education. The network involves all primary and (lower) secondary schools (up to 14 years) of the province of Grugliasco. In this framework the ITIS Majorana plays the role of tutor and coordinator of scientific activities. The web portal is not directly originated from a policy or a legislation. Nevertheless it is related to the MIUR pilot-project “LE PAROLE DELLA SCIENZA”, in the framewok of which the school chemistry group is playing the role of tutor for the science activities in primary and secondary schools.
Was a link made between the initiative and the school development plan?
Yes
Was the innovative action for science action part of a larger school strategy to promote innovation in school education in general?
Yes
Does the initiative result from new policy or legislation?
No
Promotion and diffusion of the initiative
Does the ministry or one of its representatives organise sessions between all schools and teachers involved to exchange good practice? Do you have to inform other schools or teachers about your innovative activities so as to disseminate the innovation? If so, by which way(s)?
The initiative is mainly diffused via the project web site. The school also partecipated to many congresses and other events in order to present the web portal. The theatre events “Le avventure nelle scienze” (The adventures in science) are an occasion to promote the initiative in other schools. The initiative has also been recognized as good practice by the European eSchola project and by the Italian Chemistry Society.
How was the project introduced to the whole school? Information meeting for all teachers? For science teachers? For parents?
The project has been presented to the whole school during the regular meetings.
How were the outcomes of the innovative strategy disseminated within the own school?
The project results are mainly diffused on the school web site.
Impact
In which way has the introduction of the innovative approach had an impact on:
The place of science education in the curriculum
The initiative has a direct impact on the quality of science education, rather than on the place of the science education in the curriculum. The project is done during extra-curricular hours in the afternoon.
The collaboration / the use of laboratories in science subjects
The initiative, by fostering “hands-on” experiences, cooperative work and peer education, promotes the use of laboratories at all school levels, with a local and deep impact.
The way in which science is approached, taught or learned
The initiative has a local and deep impact on the way in which science is approached, because it promotes a collaborative learning environment, the action-research, the hands-on experience, and other strategies, like the peer education, to make students play an active role in science education.
The in-service training of the science teachers
The initiative also has an indirect impact on the teachers training, because it encourages them to deepen and update their knowledge and teaching methodology.
The interest of the pupils for science, the active involvement of children in learning science
The initiative has a deep impact at local level on the interest of pupils for science, by encouraging them to consider science from different points of view, both emotional and cognitive. The students are free to find their own approach to the science activities and to cooperate with teachers in the aspects of the initiative they are interested in.
The percentage of students in the schools studying science
Some students of the ITIS for whom the study of chemistry is no longer mandatory (during the last years of secondary education), continue to participate in the project and to attend the chemistry laboratory on their own initiative in extra-curricular hours.
What are the main benefits or advantages from introducing this new approach to science teaching? What was the main obstacle?
Main benefit: Some students of the ITIS for whom the study of chemistry is no longer mandatory (during the last years of secondary education), continue to participate in the project and to attend the chemistry laboratory on their own initiative in extra-curricular hours.
Which main approach is considered: a STS (science, technology, society) type or a discipline-oriented one?
STS approach
Innovation
In which way is the initiative contributing to innovation in science education?
It uses new pedagogical or didactical approaches. How?
The initiative is innovative in this regard because it puts together different didactical approaches of science teaching: cooperative learning, experimental problem solving, techniques of social animation (peer education, action research), experiments related to the magic of science etc.
It makes special use of ICT. How?
The use of ICT is fundamental in the project, and they are used as cooperative working instruments. The web portal is seen as an archive of experiences, the historic memory of the project and the showcase of the working group: not a simple hypertext but a “process”, to which everybody is contributing. Every student is at the same time author and web master, being able to modify directly a document of the portal, also from home.
It is built on co-operation with the local community: industry, research centre, university, science museums, European or national science associations etc. Explain!
The project stimulates the cooperation with other schools, especially regarding the activities of tutorship and the theatre performances “Le avventure nelle scienze” (The adventures in science). Another type of cooperation exists with the university, in which the students participate each year in the stages of microscopy Micron, organised by the scientific and technological historical archive of the Torino University of Turin and the Torino Science Centre.
It creates a new and attractive learning environment for the pupils. Explain!
Thanks to the harmonious collaboration with teachers and students, to the discovery of most affascinating and “magic” aspects of science, to the big attraction made up by new technologies, the project fully contributes to the motivation and attraction of students towards science subjects.
Project management
Who decided to implement this initiative? Why?
The project has been planned by a group of chemistry teachers who have progressively involved other science subjects teachers. At the origin of the project is the desire to give to students the opportunity to fill the empty hours in the afternoon with a motivating and socialising activity which helps them growing together and experiment the school as a creative meeting place.
How does the team work? Distinction and repartition of roles? Existence of priority collective choices? How was the team made? Does the team work on other basis than voluntary work?
The team is made up by 4 teachers of Chemistry and Physics, and 2 ICT experts. Nearly 40 students are part of the team. The work is done in a cooperative way.
What are the investments in offices and human resources? What are the material resources mobilized/granted? (credits, rooms, time...) Resources mobilized to create the networks (who is member of and how?) Meetings? Dialogue time?
The school provides rooms, laboratory, hours (paid at a 50 per cent rate) and tools (wireless PC). The team meets twice a week in the afternoons in a formal way, and many times at week informally. The technical activities of research and development regarding the cooperative working tools of the web of the Institute have been finaced by the CRT Foundation and the Piemonte Region thanks to the eSchola network – http://eschola.eun.org .
What kind of collaborative work is set up? Existence of working sheets, Internet collaborative tools, documents, official texts sent to the persons? Who write them, send them? How everyone access to them? What is the degree of constraint of these items?
Internet collaborative tools have been set up.
Investment of the administration and the school head Who has initiated this project? Does he/she delegate? Does he/she collaborate to the work (degree of effective participation)? Does he/she organize meetings? Does he/she promote the team work (timetable for instance)? Does he/she put forward the work inside and outside the school? Does he/she show interest for the action and persons (he/she do not take all the credit)?
The school head is informed about the project development every three months and participates in the most important initiatives.
Does a more encompassing project exist around this initiative? Do they debate on some issues of the innovation? Is this project a result of thought beforehand? Is there any mutual effect between the theory and the practice?
Behind the project lies the reflection of teachers about the development, inside the school, of a science education community of practice and learning.
Which actors are mobilised around the project? Who works in the team? With whom does the team work (parents, communities, local educational institutions)? Who in the internal team does contact who outside? Why this person? What are the arguments? What are the strategies used? Who in the team belongs also to these external networks? Does an organised communication system exist in the school?
All the schools of the province, the University and the Science Centre of Turin, the CSA (Centre for Amministrative Educational Services) are mobilised around the project.
