LEARNING BY DOING, THE EXPERIMENTAL LEARNING PATHS FOR REGIONAL SCHOOLS

In March 2012, an experimental teaching path will be started by Vetroricerca Glas & Modern, the local education authority and the Faculty of Education. The aim of the initiative, as required by the announcements of the European Division of the ESF Bureau in Bolzano, is "the promotion of innovative educational methods, to be offered to teachers of all levels." There will be offered a structured and planned program together with the partner institutions as part of the ESF project, which has been involving for several years students and experts from all around the world, engaged in the artistic and technologic experimentation of different glass product. Technique, technology, art and experimentation, will be integrated with the traditional program through innovative teaching methods, offering to participants the opportunity to "learn by doing". Subjects such as history, geography, geometry, but also topics like cultural integration, energy conservation, recycling and linguistic integration will be taught in accordance with criteria and procedures which will take account of the pedagogical aspects of the educational programs and the age of students and everyone involved. The glass, which has an age almost as long as that of the man, is getting a vehicle of teaching and represents an essential element of its own history. The Aimmpe commission (which brings together 68 member states) defines the glass as the 4th most important discovery made after the periodic table of elements, the iron smelting and the transistor and it is the second most non-metallic material used in the world. This element is completely recyclable and for twenty years it has been the protagonist of a technological evolution that has made of it the extraordinary privileged material in the world of contemporary architecture, design, industry, as well as in making prostheses in medicine and finally in the areas of energy saving and sustainable development. All these topics will permit to design specific training courses, with teaching targets according to any school level as well as to all involved teachers. The educational methods will allow to work effectively, manipulate, simulate, activate the whole body, without losing sight of a prerequisite for learning: the experience accompanied by thought.