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Laboratorio di Comunicazione delle Scienze Fisiche, Dipartimento di Fisica - Università degli studi di Trento
GIREP Seminar
2003
Modern Physics (MP), the ensemble of the physical theories that are able to explain, for the most part, the known atomic and subatomic phenomena and the most recent technologies which make part of our daily life, is the physics of last century. Still, the pre-universitary student, if ever gets into contact with MP in a systematic academic way, very often gets misconceptions, not only about the basic phenomena which are presented but also about the physical explanations provided by MP. On top, more often than not, MP is presented as something we cannot understand easily, in the same way we do with classical physics for instance, because its features are somehow “bizarre” or out of our “common sense”. We present here a research project whose main goal is the study of new methodologies and technical aids, which can be made easily available today (computer facilities, visualization software and on-line learning), in order to improve the quality of teaching and the basic background offered to the student about a subject that despite of being old almost a century, still is not properly and/or widely teached in our high schools. Moreover, we intend to create a fluid and continuous feeedback between the University and High-School(HS) teachers, in order to provide the necessary preparation for the “safe” teaching of this subject.