Relevant initiatives

Virtual light

Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati (SISSA, Trieste) e Edumond editori associati (Milano, Firenze, Bologna)

2001

National

No

Online course, Teaching Methodology, Video, Didactical resource

Physics

Italian

Teachers, Students

Virtual Light is an initiative born from the collaboration between the Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati (SISSA, Trieste) and Edmund Editori Associati (Milan, Florence, Bologne).
Virtual Light is an didactical proposal of interactive laboratory on Physics focusing on the issues linked to the study of the light.
The initiative aims to offer an innovative service for the study of Physics. The laboratorial experiences are updated adding new experiments or support and didactic materials.
On this website, experiments, exercises and animation are available for whoever is curious about this subject and wants to go beyond the ordinary didactic. The more interesting aspect of Virtual Light is its approach this particular topic of Physics. This approach is from a modern prospective, with technological advanced tools, through an engaging method.
However, since its starting point, Virtual Light does not intend to take the place of books or of real laboratory. Instead, it aims to be an incentive to approach some physics topics that often are hard to understand or even hostile.
Virtual Light is enriched by other sections. These collect some historical excursus starting from the first theories about “The light according to the classical Physics” to the “Experiments with the photons”, passing through “The light according to the quantum mechanics”. Whether students or teachers can find interesting in-depth information about the biography of scientists.

This website, maybe too sectorial, answers at least to two of the principal needs, coming from the teachers: both to operate in adequately equipped laboratories and to create a background for physics basics (in that case).
Virtual light proposes itself as a virtual and interactive laboratory about the light studying in the traditional physics (http://www.lucevirtuale.net/percorsi/indice_percorso1.html), in the quantum physics (http://www.lucevirtuale.net/percorsi/indice_percorso2.html) and in the photon experiments (http://www.lucevirtuale.net/percorsi/indice_percorso3.html).
Teachers have the opportunity to value the effectiveness of many exercises (http://www.lucevirtuale.net/strumenti/esercizi/onde_elettromagnetiche/esercizi.html).
A chronological excursus (http://www.lucevirtuale.net/storia/storia.htm ) will help to build up the context for the events and scientific discoveries, while some biographical notes (http://www.lucevirtuale.net/biografie/introduzione.html) about the main characters of the different sections could involve students to the science subject, not only made of formulas and numbers.

A very rich website that proposes many different activities, all concerning light.
Especially the section on light in modern physics (and the experiments with photons) can be useful, since the new programs include these arguments and there isn’t a widespread teaching culture on them.
Some news about scientists’ lives and works can move student’s curiosity and involve them in finding other information.
There are many exercises that can help teachers’ work.

Very interesting and complete, some sections seem difficult to read or study without teacher’s help.