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With this activity you can quickly build your own paper  sundial and find out what time it is by using the Sun! The performance is better if the watch pattern is printed on a cardboard. As an alternative, you can print it on normal paper and glue the sheet on a cardboard, or a file folder, before cutting and assembling. Necessary Materials Copy of the sheet Sundial (better if printed on cardboard) Scissors Tape (Scotch tape) (optional) file folder (optional) glue stick What to do and how to observe ReadLEGGI TUTTO

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This simple activity, designed for pre-school children, or children in the early years of primary school, allows us to bring the little ones closer to understanding the motions of familiar celestial bodies, such as the Sun, the Earth and the Moon. Through the construction of a bidimensional model (2D), not to scale, children will be able to familiarize with the movements of the Moon around the Earth, and of the Earth around the Sun, making learning these concepts more concrete and fun. The yield is better if the Sun-Earth-Moon model isLEGGI TUTTO

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Teaching activity planned by Emanuele Dondoglio during the PhD course “Designing innovative public engagement activities”, held in 2022 at the University of Padua. Materials 2 m long sponge tubes, cut in half, for insulation (3 for each group) scissors (1 for each group) black tape (1 for each group) marbles (4 for each group) container (1 for each group) wall (to attach the track to) Description of the activity In this activity, you will have to challenge children to build a roller coaster for marbles, by rolling them on tubes,LEGGI TUTTO

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Short description of the Activity Source of marvel for everyone, the Moon never stops bewitching and being the protagonist of incredible stories. But why does a crescent Moon sometimes appear to us, and sometimes a full Moon, and every now and then you cannot even see it? Thanks to the Moon Box you will discover why the Moon appears always different. You will find out the secrets of its appearing and disappearing, and keeps surprising with its cyclical change. Materials for the activity For the construction of the Moon BoxLEGGI TUTTO

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Teaching activity planned by Edoardo Ceccarelli, Giulia Campitiello and Stefano Sotira during the PhD course “ Designing innovative public engagement activities” at the University of Bologna in 2023. Short description of the activity: The Universe is mainly composed of a series of structures which are called galaxies, of various shape and kind. The galaxy in which we live, or hosts our Solar System, is called Milky Way and is one of the many spiral galaxies. The name of this category of objects derives from the particular distribution of gas inside,LEGGI TUTTO

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Teaching Activity planned by Ilaria Viale and Marco Dall’Amico during the PhD course “Designing innovative public engagement activities”, held at the University of Padova in 2022. Astrophysical Box: The goal of this laboratory is to show children how astronomers observe black holes. In this activity we will show the effect of gravity exerted by different bodies in a small region of spacetime, reproduced by a black sheet held taut on a hula hop. We will simulate the deformation of spacetime through the deformation of the sheet, due to the differentLEGGI TUTTO

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Teaching activity planned by Anastasiia Plotnikova and Biagio Ambrosio during the PhD course “Designing innovative public engagement activities”, held at the University of Padua in 2022. Which forces oppose gravity? Archimedes’ force, friction force, magnetic force and binding reaction. Experience the challenge between gravity and each of these forces to find out, who wins each time. Materials half-painted inclined countertop water containers shoe box magnets wooden cues nails copper wire aluminium foil glue paper sheets   For the tinkering table: half-painted inclined countertop water containers shoe boxes magnets copper wireLEGGI TUTTO

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A teaching activity planned by Biagio Ambrosio and Anastasiia Plotnikova during the PhD course “Designing innovative public engagement activities” held at the University of Padua in 2022. Build a galaxy in a bowl full of water and print its image on a sheet of paper, so that you can admire it when you want! Materials one container for water containiers for oil paints spray bottle for oil toothpick flour oil paints oil carpaper (watercolour paper is the best, but also normal paper is fine) printed images of galaxies paper napkinsLEGGI TUTTO

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Teaching activity planned by Deimer Antonio Alvarez Garay, Alex Ciabattoni, Camilla Giusti ans Elena Tomasetti during the PhD course “Designing innovative public engagement activities”, held at the University of Bologna in 2023. We recognize familiar figures in constellations because of our culture and habits; each people has seen in constellations different objects and characters according to their own roots. Those figures are really the fruit of the only perspective which we have of them from the Earth. If we could look at them from a totally different region of space,LEGGI TUTTO

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Teaching Activity planned by Irene Salmaso and Biagio Ambrosio during the PhD course “Designing innovative public engagement activities”, held at the University of Padua in 2024. Short Description of the Activity What does entropy mean, and how does it work? In this experience, through the use of colours and smells, it will be possible to perceive the different degrees of entropy which exist in more or less disorderly systems, in order to discover how it evolves with time. Materials Blue, red and yellow poster paints 3 food flavourings/different recognizable essentialLEGGI TUTTO

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Teaching activity planned by Leonardo De Deo, Greta Toni and Rachele Toniolo during the PhD course “Designing innovative public engagement activities” held at the University of Padova in 2024. Short description of the Activity Did you know that in the Universe there are objects behaving like clocks? We are talking about pulsars, peculiar stars emitting light pulses with an extremely precise rhythm. However, even the best sometimes miss a beat. In this laboratory, we will play with pulsars and their rhythm, and will discoverir how they are used to studyLEGGI TUTTO

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Teaching activity planned by Stefano Giarratana, Emanuele De Rubeis, Cristina Nanci, Xavier Lopez Lopez and Davide Pellicciari during the Phd course “Designing innovative public engagement activities” held at the University of Bologna in 2023. Short description of the activity: The galaxies which make up our Universe are of various types, each one with a different shape and features. The goals of this activity is discovering the main differences between two particular categories of galaxies: spiral galaxies and elliptical galaxies. Just like astronomers, we will find out which of the two containsLEGGI TUTTO