Science and creativity

<p>I teach Natural Sciences in a Liceo Artistico, a type of secondary school in Italy. It is designed to give students the skills to progress to any university, but specifically devoted to art related topics.<br>During my career I have been following the national educational standard of the Ministero dell’Istruzione, dell’Università e della Ricerca of my Country.<br>During the years students are involved in meaningful hands-on activities   such as the study of the rocks in the country, preparation of easy chemical reactions and observations through a microscope of vegetal and animal organisms. These last ones are very interesting in a Liceo Artistico where many topics focus on the study of the morphology.<br>The theory confirms what the students learn during the practical activities, furthermore it is important to acquire a correct scientific terminology as well as to be able to express scientific issues.<br>I teach during the year the following main topics:<br>Science of Earth: the Solar System, the two motions of the Earth, structures of the Earth surface (rivers, lakes, glaciers, oceans and seas), the Earth’s Spheres, the movement of lithospheric plates.<br>Biology: the characteristics and functions of living organisms especially the cells and the biodiversity. The Evolution, Mendel’s genetic laws, organism-environment relationship in order to valorize and to maintain the biodiversity. Chemistry: state of matter, classification of matter, the Mendeleev’s Periodic Table, the main chemical reactions, atomics models, chemical bonds, chemical nomenclature.<br>The extra-curricular course proposal of my school (POFT-Piano dell’Offerta Formativa Triennale) includes my project whose title is “Science and creativity”. The achievement is to create a link between scientific subjects and the art ones in order to approach knowledge which appear distant but have really many points to share.<br>Every year some classrooms study different topics such as the Nanoparticles, Biomimetic and this year the Adaptations of the animals.<br>After a scientific conference, plastic models and graphic drawings will be realised by the students, who starting from the scientific reality, can express their creativity.<br>During the years I organize some educational visits for example to the Botanic Garden as well as to the countryside; in this way the students have opportunities to create an e-book with texts and photographs.<br>For instance two years ago my classroom created an e-book with botanical cards and the following year another one with the title “Rocce a Milano” where students took pictures and texts about this topic.<br>Many classrooms and teachers are involved in this project for example Plastic and Drawing teachers, as well as Multimedia teachers. I manage to gather the interested teachers and to realize the projects.<br>With our productions we participate in competitions and we are sometimes selected.</p>