Title of Initiative / Project
Eniscuola
Start and ending date of the Initiative
2010
Was the initiative carried out in the framework of a funded project?
No
Type of deliverables
Teaching Methodology, On-line Game, Didactical resource
Thematic area
Chemistry, Maths, Physics, Biology, Science
Language of the deliverable
Italian, English
Target Group
Teachers, Students
Description of the initiative
The Eniscuola project was created by eni together with the Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei in 2000. Its goal is to give students qualified extensive information on energy and environment issues. Eniscuola’s main tool is the www.eniscuola.net website, available also in English.
In 2010 Eniscuola improved its graphic design, offering a new organization of contents. The website has over 1,200 pages with documents, pictures, graphs, charts, experiments, games and interviews with national and international scientists including Nobel prize winners Alan J. Heeger and Sir Harold W. Kroto as well as MIT, World Bank, Imperial College and Cambridge University researchers.
The website offers schools educational programs on Maths, Physics, Biology, Natural Science and Chemistry, that involve over 6000 students per year. An Eniscuola statistic: in 2009 alone, 7 million pages were visited by 950,000 single users.
Eniscuola works with Regional School Departments, ARPA and many University and Research Educational Department and museums and also participates to the most important Italian scientific and cultural events.
The Eniscuola project has been acknowledged by UNESCO’s Italian National Commission and is part of the U.N.’s Decade of Education for Sustainable Development, by contributing to spread its goals and ideals.
Teachers’ Opinion
Strenghten and weakeness
According to me and only as far as the Physics is concerned, this website is scarcely interesting. It has a lot of topics, but they are not dealt in depth. The videos uploaded on the portal are not useful (and they are repeated for different sections). The terms “course” and “digital didactic” used as titles for respective sections are really ambitious. Indeed, these sections contain only some videos and some slides that aim to explain, in few minutes, topics requiring several months in class (e.g. the mechanic energy or the theory of relativity). The study about the mechanic energy lasted centuries and this portal simplifies excessively this topic. Quoting from the website, Einstein “had not the knowledge that we have nowadays…but he studied…”. This sentence is a symptom of an infantile vision about the scientific process. According to this vision the scientific discoveries are like objects found by an explorer, even by chance. Conversely, they are voluntary creation of genius as Einstein was.
I surfed some sections (e.g. Movement area) but I found only material to be read.
The information about the international project LAB4 energy is available only in English and I had many difficulties to understand. In addition, some material is available only after registration.
The website put a special focus on the presentation of the topics in English, but I do not feel this necessity as a didactic priority of the subjects I teach (Physics and Mathematics).
Potential transferability in class.
According to me, this website is neither didactically useful nor worthy to be suggested to my pupils. I think that you can find more interesting online resources. Generally speaking, this portal is better prepared for a media show: flashnews presented in a pleasant way, but scarcely relevant in order to perform a learning initiative.
Students’ Opinion
When you enter on this website your attention is catched by the suggestive images and it is a pleasure to browse.
From the content's point of view, the website is well structured and, in my opinion, the contents give pause for thought about waste and environment protection.
Comments on this Relevant initiatives
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Date: 2015.03.28
Posted by Elena Margheri (Italy)
This initiative is extremely interesting for the attention it gives to imagines and for the easy usability of the website. Indeed, it is useful to introduce students to environmental issues and give them some hints for further activities. On my opinion the best age target is 14-15 years old students, as information given is not to complex and detailed.