For secondary schools pupils, we focused upon watching and analysing the film “First Man” by Damien Chazelle (2018), in particular upon Neil Armstrong, in order to reflect on the theme of human exploration. During these meetings, an astrophysicist commented on the film, together with the boys and girls, while gathering and stimulating their curiosity upon the developments of scientific and technological knowledge, as well as projects for the exploration of our Solar System.
For children from 6 years and up, and their families, we organized special appointments of the cineclub “Schermi e Lavagne” to films about the Moon and the Space: from September until May, we met about 400 young spectators. Here too, the film was accompanied by an introduction –made by the National Institute of Astrophysics, or by a laboratory on the same theme.
For the youngest, we organized a series of matinées and two appointments at the “Cinnoteca”, the space of the Cinematheque dedicated to small cinephiles and their families, and focussing upon a guided view of short animation.
“Destination: Moon – KIDS” was a laboratory addressed to kindergarten school: from January until April, we managed to reach about 12 schools around Bologna, thus meeting over 300 children between 3 and 5 years of age. The twofold objective of our didactic experiment was to accompany children in the guided observation of the object-Moon, and stimulate their curiosity about Astrophysics, as well as ignite their imagination by watching short films about the Moon as the destination of fantastic trips, as an object to catch, as a mystery to be solved. By taking into account the cognitive development of children in the reference age group, as well as the logistical constraints, we thought it appropriate to structure the laboratory in a single two-hour meeting for each class, organized in three steps: first of all, a section devoted to the collective reading of an illustrated book, followed by the observation of the Moon and of its phases through the lunatario , and finally the experience of the movie theatre. This project is continuing as a pilot in the “Istituto Comprensivo 12” of Bologna, with a few setbacks because of Covid-19. Here is a list of support materials, already developed and searchable:destination moon: a booklet for educator and parents (Italian)
and here you can find the teaching activities which we designed and tested (english translation in progress):
attività propodeutica al lunatario per la scuola dell’infanzia (Teresa Lanzano)
