Within the Skype a Scientist initiative promoted by Scientix EU, we met Federica Beduini P.h.D. who showed us the multiple applications of graphene on April 30, 2021 in a streaming event organized by our scientific high school, Liceo Scientifico di Stato Calini in Brescia (Italy).
The meeting was part of the “Journey into Modern Physics”, in the path of Art & Science and following one of the learning scenarios present in STE(A)MIT – AN INTERDISCIPLINARY STEM APPROACH CONNECTED: Graphene – miraculous 21st Century Material
This Institute is dedicated to research in photonics, the science and technology related to light. Since light is a versatile tool that is both precise and delicate, it allows to study and create new technologies in different fields: health, information and energy. For this, we spoke with Federica Beduini P.h.D. about the following themes:
photonics and applications in the field of energy and environmental care
photonics and health applications
photonics and applications in the field of information
The project was created as a PCTO (internship) project for third and fourth-grade students of our school (Scientific High School) from the challenge “Art & Science across Italy”, which is a European project of the CREATIONS network (H2020) organized by the National Institute for Nuclear Physics and CERN in Geneva to promote scientific culture among young people. It combines the languages of art and science: two knowledge tools that are among the highest expressions of human creativity.
The first objective of the project is to bring students closer to the world of science and research, regardless of their aptitude for science subjects, using art as the communication language.
The project is structured in successive steps with seminars in schools and universities, visits to museums and scientific laboratories, workshops held by experts from the world of science and art, and tutoring activities during the creation of artistic compositions. In particular, for each of the cities involved, the project is divided into a training and a creative phase, followed by a local exhibition and a final national selection that culminates in the Exhibition “A Journey in Science”, scheduled to take place at the National Archaeological Museum of Naples on May 2022.
SUMMARY
The activity is as an opening towards the teaching of civic education. It aims at connecting the projects present in the school into a unity in order to open paths of citizenship, service learning and dialogue with institutions and the territory, to create dynamics inside / outside the school in synergy with one’s environment and to develop critical awareness and sensitivity.
It should create connections with the Service-Learning projects already present in the schools, with some Institutions in the territory, with Schools of Peace, in harmony with the guidelines for the implementation of civic education. It aims at creating opportunities for awareness and ideation arising from the students: data analysis and their interpretation as a central element for teaching citizenship and the Constitution, scientific research and care of the other, individual responsibility in collective choices, interconnections of knowledge and enhancement of communication skills.
Students will learn the meaning of scientific dissemination and the involvement of the territory through art: starting from the concepts and phenomena they have freely analyzed and deepened, they will create concrete and / or multimedia artifacts, which are an expression of their living the link among science, art and society.