Costruire i concetti nel contesto di appartenenza

Students and teachers of a hotel management school worked together with the Italian League for the Fight Against Cancer in order to establish a healthy eating guide under the supervision of a chemistry teacher. The course was able to contextualize the chemical reactions of the main antioxidant foods through experimental tests carried out by the students both at school as well as at home. They contributed to the preparation of the recipes included in the book, the eating guide. Each test was discussed and revised by a cooperative team, alternating the flipped classroom with a cooperative approach. Many simple-to-perform experiments have sprung from their imagination and the questions of the students, who have suggested further tests. The context of students with learning disabilities and that of unmotivated pupils are often characterized by cultural deprivation. The success and participation observed for both groups suggest that the use of the tasks of reality in the construction of competencies can repair the common deficit of stimulating factors. The experiment, the lowest step in the learning process, is the foundation of the entire cognitive building; it is therefore particularly important to steadily build new knowledge in the mental structures of low degree of abstraction. In learning, the experiment can be a motivational factor and is also the emotional psychological reservoir from which to draw the adequate sensations which are essential to cope with the required task. If the educational activities become shared and related to familiar scenarios, both the intrinsic and the extrinsic mobilization can be activated, as demonstrated by the insights on food marketing strategies which have made the learning process even more useful and engaging. Debates and socio-scientific argumentations have contributed to feed the interest in the project.