For a Human-Centered AI

Going to the Theater in the City of Electrons

March 5, 2018

The project for schools, which aims to create a scientific and informative text, has come to life: at the end of a thrilling challenge, the work of the "Maffei" high school in Riva del Garda, which described the physics of semiconductors in a theatrical key, has been awarded the prize

The “City of electrons” has been populated. The FBK promoted project – which involves six high schools in the Province of Trento – saw its climax on February 22, on Via Santa Croce, with the presentation of the works developed by the students.

The project aims to create a scientific text written by the kids and intended for their peers, on nanomaterials and semiconductors. In the previous months, the students had been “prepared” by two preliminary lessons: the first held by Agnese Sonato from the magazine “PLaNCK!” magazine on science communication, the second by Renato Bozio, professor of physical chemistry at the University of Padua, on more technical aspects related to the physics of semiconductors.

During the general meeting of February 22, five classes (one each of the following high schools: Tione’s “Guetti“, Riva del Garda’s “Maffei“, Rovereto’s “Marconi“, and two from Trento’s “Buonarroti“) presented works explaining the physical and chemical principles underlying the functioning of a semiconductor, competing against one another.

The committee, composed by FBK’s Pierlugi Bellutti, Claudia Dolci, Alessandra Potrich, Chiara Zanoni Zorzi, Isabella Masè and Matteo Serra, as well as by Agnese Sonato, Renato Bozio and the attending students and teachers themselves, awarded as the best project presented by the students the one of the “Maffei” High School. The high school students persuaded the committee thanks to a short and original play in which they described – with a language that was both creative and precise – the required scientific content.
The other performances, in which the various classes have experimented with very different narrative languages, were also very appreciated.

The next step will see the contribution of two other classes – one from Trento’s “Prati” and the other from Rovereto’s “Depero” – that will have the task of creating the text for lay people based on the winning project (but including as well the most interesting elements of the other works) and a video “trailer” of the final product. However, as the project manager Pierluigi Bellutti pointed out, the theatrical element introduced by the students of the “Maffei” high school could be enhanced with an ad hoc exhibit within the project.


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