Light and Shadow Project, Day and Night

Vertical Path “Light and Shadow, Day and Night, Sun and Moon”

This project is intended as a support tool for implementing the vertical science curriculum for Kindergarten, Primary School, and Lower Secondary School. It arises from the new needs following the reorganization of the three school levels into a single School Institute (Comprehensive Institute).

The vertical solution, in fact, can offer undeniable advantages from an educational-didactic point of view: in particular, it provides the opportunity to achieve methodological-educational continuity while offering the foundations for the operational realization of content continuity. At the same time, the need for coordination and discussion among teachers of the three school levels can be an excellent opportunity to enhance the available human and professional resources. Shared educational projects in content and teaching methodologies can thus represent a growth path for students and teachers, as well as for families, favoring the shift of the teaching/learning axis towards the learning pole.

These advantages can be more keenly felt when tackling scientific subjects like astronomy. Starting from the natural need of younger children to explore and understand the environment they live in, the development of vertical educational paths can more successfully initiate the construction of critical scientific thinking, leading them to achieve specific learning objectives in the subsequent two levels.

In particular, this project is proposed as a learning path for preschool children (5 years old), for students in the intermediate stage of primary school (3rd or 4th grade), and for students in the intermediate stage of lower secondary school (2nd year).

The project was developed in the school year 2015/2016 at the Comprehensive Institute of Quartucciu (CA) and involved about 35 kindergarten children, 42 primary school students, and 41 lower secondary school students.

Contents and methodologies were agreed upon with the teaching staff of the three school levels.