Database of Publications

GROWING IN EUROPEAN DIMENSION. (CRESCERE IN DIMENSIONE EUROPEA)

Nadia Zamboni

Pearson

2013

Italian

Web Article

Teachers

3 – 10 pages

The article is the description of how an ICTs resource in English was used to teach chemistry at lower secondary school. The teacher, Nadia Zamboni, used it to experience the CLIL methodology in building science and digital skills. The whiteboard gave an essential support because it favored the cooperative work, through continuous sharing moments between groups of pupils.Chemistry at home, the interactive section of the site Chemistry Is All Around Us, provided interesting insights to undertake, with laboratorial approach, a path of observation and reflection on a common chemical reaction such as that between vinegar and baking soda. The students, divided into groups, have explored part of the resource, focusing on the reaction and collecting information on some factors affecting it. The English texts have also allowed an unusual approach to the specific terminology in a foreign language, which has become part of the learning process.Each group, after choosing an experimental variable to be tested among quantity, temperature and concentration of reactants, presented the activity to the other schoolmates, in the form of self-managed project.At the end of the activity, the teacher required a scientific report including both the work done in the first person and the one made by the other groups. The activities were also supported by the implementation of worksheets in Italian / English, provided by Nadia Zamboni and compiled by the students, again through a mode of cooperation extended to the entire class. The details of the work, carried out with a second class of lower secondary school degree, were recently published online and are freely available.

The article is important because it describes a successful experience carried out as part of this project (Chemistry Is All Around the Network), taking advantage of one of the tools provided by the previous project "Chemistry Is All Around Us. The educational activities built in this way underline the effectiveness of the efforts made by the countries participating in the projects and demonstrate the interest of schools and teachers to new teaching methodologies, whether under the guidance of researchers and experts.
The work described was carried out by the teacher of an associated school, which is involved in educational projects and agrees in working not only in a national but also in a European dimension. For a teacher it is definitely difficult to take courses using new teaching methods, especially when he/she did not received the necessary training. However, the article shows that the support of selected material and the guidance of experienced people (people involved in the project), make this task easier and the chances of success increase.
Moreover, the use that the author made of the ICT resource, shows that it is possible, and useful, to work siding different methodologies (as in this case: work in groups, practical activities and digital resources). The result is the improving of the learning, due to a good student motivation and to the satisfaction of the different learning styles.

University of Genoa