The School of Physics with Arduino and Smartphone is an advanced training course provided by the Department of Physics at Sapienza University of Rome for teacher training, helping them to innovate didactic activities with new digital technology.
Teachers learn about new digital methods and techniques and how to use them for their activities, transmitting the competences to their students, in a positive and efficient cycle of knowledge multiplication. This allows the students not only to become more interested in Physics, but also to acquire skills that will be useful on the labour market.
The third edition of the programme will be held on February 22-24, 2019 at Sapienza University and the Fab Lab at the Fondazione Mondo Digitale’s Phyrtual Innovation Gym (Via del Quadraro 102).
During the course of the programme, teachers will attend full immersion labs to learn how to use Arduino chipsets and smartphones to take measurements a conduct experiments in their schools. During the first day, tutors will explain how to programme the chipsets and use sensor data from their smartphones. Then, the teachers will be asked to design an experiment. The teachers then purchase the materials necessary for their experiments in nearby shops and prepare the experiment with the help of their tutors and the Fab Lab technicians. During the afternoon of the third day, each group of teachers presents their experiments to the other participants.
At the end of the programme every teacher must provide documentation on the completed experiment, published on the Sapienza website, which will provide information to any school wishing to replicate the experiment.
The three-day programme allows teachers without any prior knowledge of chipset coding to become a true maker and conduct experiments that stand up to the same tests that can be conducted with dedicated material.
Moreover, the school is also appreciated for the competences that it provides and its spirit. It is an extremely collaborative and stimulating environment, also thanks to the full-time formula and the sharing of time and space. And the lunch break is an integral part of the programme, too, allowing teachers from different schools to network and create new bonds.
After just two editions, the first results are evident. At least three schools have enriched their academic programmes with Arduino coding and the results have been addressed by high-level international conferences. Furthermore, important international experts have participated in the programme, including Frederic Bouquet from Paris and David Cuartielles, one of the Arduino inventors, from Oslo.
The Director of the School, Prof. Giovanni Organtini from the Sapienza University Department of Physics, is the Italian Ambassador for PhyPhoX, the app developed by Sebastian Staacks to make measurements with smartphones.
