Author: Marina Stanojlovic Mircic

This activity took place on 10 – 12 March 2020 and represented a correlation between one non-STEM school subject and few STEM school subjects. The lesson is realized by CLIL teaching method (Content and Language Integrated Learning) in correlation with computer science, physics and mathematics. Following the curriculum of Italian as the second foreign language taught in Serbian schools, with the help of Europeana resources, my students came up with data on who were the scientists with the highest IQ in Italy in the past.

In Italian and Serbian languages, 8th grade students presented the most intelligent Italians who ever lived: Galileo Galilei, Hypatia of Alexandria, which was then part of the Eastern Roman Empire and Leonardo da Vinci. In this way, we have marked 500 years since the death of Leonardo da Vinci, an extraordinary man and a great genius. The topic of the most famous Italians was familiar to my students since they were in the 7th grade.

First, students searched on the Internet and found data on these three people using the following Europeana resources:  Galileo Galilei, Hypatia of Alexandria and Leonardo da Vinci. Some other web resources were used to find which Italian scientist had the highest IQ. Then they adapted the texts and photos to their Italian knowledge and translated them into Serbian using the online dictionary “Bing Translator”. After that, they recorded the video in Italian and Serbian, so that it would be very understandable to those who do not know Italian. The entire presentation Gli scienziati più intelligenti dell’Itali, as the final product with text, pictures, and videos, is available on Sway.

In this way, students developed their communication competences in Italian and Serbian, digital competences for presentation in Sway, social and civic competences, multicultural awareness and cultural expression, collaboration and participation, critical thinking and creativity, as well as the ability to learn how to learn. All activities have been conducted with an innovative approach of student-centred teaching practices and in this mode, I intended to stimulate intellectual development, multi-linguistic education and also the personal growth of my students through the analysis and reflection about the greatest Italian minds ever.