Universit� degli studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia

National STEM disciplines week: activities organised by Unimore's FIM

The National Week of STEM disciplines (Science Technology Engineering Maths) opens at the Department of Fisics, Informatics and Mathematics (FIM) of Unimore, on Monday 3 February from 9.30 a.m. (room L1.1 of the Physics building, via Campi), with the open day ‘Science is my job! ’, during which high school students will have the opportunity to deepen their understanding of what it means to study the disciplines of the department (Physics, Computer Science and Mathematics) and discover the many opportunities of employment that the job market currently offers graduates in these three disciplines. 

The agenda for the day includes talks by professionals with degrees in physics, computer science and mathematics, who are currently employed by leading local, national and international companies or, at various levels, in teaching, who will present their work experience and describe how a degree in these scientific disciplines has been instrumental in their career development.

The appointment kicks off a broader proposal of orientation and transversal skills development paths (so-called PCTOs) that FIM is offering to schools in the week of 3-7 February 2025.

The ‘Face to Face with Science: A Week with Physics, Informatics and Mathematics’ internship will be held throughout the week: students in their final years of secondary school from 15 local schools, selected among those most interested in the department's disciplines, will have the opportunity to work closely with Unimore researchers and lecturers to deepen their knowledge in various areas of physics, informatics and mathematics, with seminar, laboratory and revision activities.

A highlight at the end of the week is the traditional ‘contest’, a challenge in which students, divided into small groups, will present a concept or topic of their choice from those covered during the week in an effective and original way. They will have only a few minutes to present, without the use of traditional teaching aids, relying solely on everyday objects. The best presentations will be rewarded with Unimore gadgets and some of the most beautiful popular science books.

Next week will also see the ‘Quantum Internship’, an event, as part of the Italian Quantum Weeks initiative, dedicated to quantum physics and its applications, which will see the participation of some thirty fourth and fifth grade students. During the internship, some of the key ideas of quantum physics, such as quantum superposition, incompatible physical quantities, and entanglement, will be introduced, also through games and simulations.

In addition to the opening day on 3 February, Tuesday 4 and Thursday 6 February will also be dedicated to ‘MoReBots: STEM and Coding workshop’, a Coding and STEM workshop aimed at high school students where computer science is not a subject of study. The approximately thirty-five students will be divided into small groups and, guided by teachers, will tackle exercises of increasing difficulty through ‘challenge-based’ learning to learn how to work in groups and develop computational thinking, i.e. how to find and develop a solution to even complex real-world problems, and begin to learn about a scientific discipline absent from their degree programme.

Preparatory meetings for the Mathematics Olympiad for upper secondary school students will also be held on 4 and 5 February. The 70 students from the province's schools who ranked best in the Archimedes Games held in November will be present. The meetings will be held by FIM teachers in collaboration with school teachers, university students and PhD students. The aim is to present particularly motivated students with some challenging and captivating problems and topics that go beyond the boundaries of traditional school curricula.

On the afternoon of Friday, 7 February, one of the local selections of the Kangourou Maths Teams, a competition aimed at lower secondary school students, will be held at FIM. The competition will take place on the same day in ten locations in the provinces of Modena and Reggio Emilia and will involve around 90 schools and almost 1000 students. The best classified schools will qualify for the national finals to be held in Cervia in May.

Finally, the week will see the second edition of the PCTO ‘Is mathematics my job? Self-evaluation workshop’, in which high school students and teachers from the department, starting from the perception of mathematics that is offered at school, will discuss what to expect from the mathematics course at university and the prejudices that still characterise the figures of mathematicians. Activities will be proposed with the aim of leading boys and girls towards a process of self-assessment that will help them make an informed choice about their future and their university career.

All initiatives are coordinated by the public engagement working group of the Department of Fisics, Informatics and Mathematics..

‘The initiatives we are proposing are a very important tool for presenting our activities to the students who will be the professionals of tomorrow,' says Prof. Maria Manfredini, President of the Third Mission Commission and FIM contact person for Orientation and Equal Opportunities, ’providing them with valuable information that can best guide them on their educational and professional path. Our aim is to meet as far as possible the needs and expectations of students, their skills and aptitudes, in an interdisciplinary context that has always characterised our department. Our team's commitment and dedication in organising these initiatives is carried out over the years, allowing us to be a constant point of reference for schools and teachers in the area’.

Categorie: International - english, Notizie_eng