DOI: 10.1285/i15910725v41p157
title: Playing, thinking and communicating sciences: museum scientific disclosure on ludodidactic and graphic basis

description: Da circa dieci anni, all'inizio del nuovo anno scolastico, il Museo universitario di Chieti offre agli insegnanti la possibilità di partecipare ad incontri di "ludo didattica scientifica" per implementare l'insegnamento e l'apprendimento delle scienze. Alla base di questi appuntamenti annuali dal titolo "Giocare, pensare e comunicare le scienze" vi sono esperimenti semplici, facilmente realizzabili dagli studenti con materiali da riciclo. Con il tempo, è nata l'esigenza di predisporre uno strumento didattico utile a tracciare le linee guida dei singoli esperimenti-giochi, quasi un "manuale di procedura" dedicato però, non solo agli insegnanti e agli adulti in generale, ma anche ad un pubblico di giovanissimi. Per tale ragione il Museo ha deciso di produrre un volume, con una veste editoriale volutamente pratica, frutto dell'esperienza e di un lungo lavoro di esperti di didattica museale e di disegnatori e grafici competenti per promuovere la costruzione del pensiero scientifico. Si tratta, in sintesi, del primo esperimento di didattica della scienza nel quale lo sforzo di grafica museale è stato sviluppato allo scopo di agevolare la comprensione e la fruizione di concetti scientifici in destinatari con esigenze così diverse tra loro (adulti e bambini).
description: For about ten years, at the beginning of each new school year, the University Museum of Chieti has offered to the teachers the possibility of using museum facilities and exhibitions to implement science teaching and learning in the public schools of "Primary and Secondary Education". At the base of these meetings of "scientific teaching ludo" there are simple experiments, easily achievable by students with recycled materials. With time, the need arose to set up a teaching tool useful for tracing the guidelines of the individual gameexperiments, almost a "procedure manual". For this reason the Museum has decided to produce a volume, with an intentionally operative editorial format, which represents the result of the experience and a long work of museum education experts and competent designers and graphic designers to promote the construction of thought in the user scientific. It is, in short, the first experiment in the teaching of science, directed at teachers, in which the effort of museum graphics has been developed with the aim of facilitating the use of selected final users (students and even their parents) other than those initials (teachers). The professional figures, that was used to design and create the book, started to developed the work from the dynamics at the base of the game, meant as participatory and emotional process of experience. The games outlined in the collection represent some ways to facilitate a "scientific attitude" to answer the natural questions that children have during their play. There are five macro-topics (acoustics, flotation, flight, motion and chemical transformations), each one developed through three playful activities proposed by different approaches. 1) The first activity (of each topic) is proposed with a "preconceived" modality: it is described entirely through indications to make a game or a toy with the assumption of always enhancing observation and causing that amazement needed to formulate some questions. 2) The second activities are described with a "half-conceived" method to support as much as possible the experimentation: in the description, useful variants to "try" stimulating the research for further questions are suggested to the user. In these activities the box "And if ..." appears, with the invitation to continue asking questions and trying experiments to find the answer(s) to the question(s) asked. 3) The third activity is of a "customable" type. Unlike the previous one the box "And if…" does not appear being the proposal already a problem solving. This is a cooperative challenge (without winners and defeated) to be carried out in autonomy or to be "led" (in the event that a support is needed), enhancing in this way children's skills and ideas. At the end of each playful activity, the basic scientific principles are indicated. The terminology of the text has been particularly handle: the language used, while remaining strictly scientific, shows a captivating, simple and understandable style. Furthermore, to facilitate the understanding of the logical steps in the experiment, the collaboration of an expert graphic designer was used who combined artistic ability of the drawing with meticulous and detailed research to give shape to complex and abstract concepts. Furthermore the graphic designer translated into illustrations the basic steps of the experiment to avoid unintentional misunderstandings and to make easier the acquisition of contents.