Upper secondary school
For more than 15 years fosforo: has been bringing STEM skills into schools through informal learning activities, and we are already working with several schools on PNRR pathways.
We are on MePA – acquistinretepa.it, the Italian public administration’s procurement portal.
Get in touch and we’ll find the best solution to develop STEM skills in your school or to create training courses, with a project tailored to your pupils and your needs!
The activities
The workshops in the pathways can be chosen from those on our website, in the “WHAT WE DO – SCHOOLS” section, with the timing and number of repetitions we agree on together to make the most of the time available. If you can’t find what you’re looking for, call us!
The experts
The pathways will include various activities run by the science communicators of fosforo: the science festival, which has been bringing hands-on workshops into schools for more than 14 years. In addition to the external expert, we can provide a second staff member to act as tutor.
The trainers
Together we can design training pathways for teachers on innovative teaching methods, the educational and technical management of digital tools, training and professional development in digital skills and much more, according to the needs of each school.
Day activities
A session held in the classroom, in the morning or afternoon, to explore a specific topic through scientific demonstrations, experiments and hands-on activities. An opportunity to spark children’s curiosity about science.
The session lasts 90 minutes and is for a maximum of 30 students.
Click on the category to see the related workshops
Contact us!Click on the category to see the related workshopsPlay Decide
PlayDecide is a card game based on group discussion, designed to tackle complex issues, often related to science and society, in a simple and informed way. It is structured to encourage debate, reflection and reaching a consensus, and is ideal for schools, debates or informal settings.
Nature and the human body
Climate change
A journey from Antarctica to the Equator to better understand climate change on our planet. Together we’ll investigate the causes and effects of global warming just as scientists do: with experiments!
Genius seeds
Seeds and their amazing strategies for getting around without wings or legs. Discovering the life, the journeys and the genius choices made by plants all over the world.
Survivor game
Are you ready to survive extreme situations? Find out with a quiz-adventure full of challenges and plot twists! With racing heartbeats, split-second decisions and curiosities about the heart and blood vessels, we’ll learn how our internal engine works. Adrenaline and science at your fingertips!
DNA supermarket
Discover what makes us unique! In this workshop we explore genotype and phenotype, from blue eyes to unruly curls and inherited traits. And to finish, an experiment for real scientists: we extract DNA from fruit with our own hands. Genetics has never been so much fun!
Micromonsters or microorganisms?
Starting from a drop of water taken from a plant saucer or from moss, we’ll take a close look at the spectacular microorganisms around us that populate the Earth. We’ll understand how life thrives under certain conditions of temperature, oxygen and nutrients, and how it struggles in others. The activity uses special microscopes.
Tinkering and engineering
Flight tinkering
What shape does an object need to fly? How heavy should it be? How should the weight be distributed? With this tinkering activity we’ll answer all these questions by experimenting with our own hands, building, adapting and shaping our flying objects, and then watching them fly in the wind tunnel!
Tinkering: scribble machine
A motor, two batteries, a few felt-tip pens: that’s all you need for a scribble machine, the rest is in our heads! A chance to compare ideas, reflect, invent and share projects with the person next to you, with a single goal: to scribble all over our sheet of paper!
Egg challenge
Many years ago, the Exploratorium in San Francisco came up with a series of activities to develop problem-solving, manual and creative skills. These are the Egg Challenges, a fascinating series of challenges to be completed in small groups without breaking the eggs.
Bridges and structures
There are many techniques for building a bridge, but all bridges follow precise physical laws so they don’t collapse. Let’s try building a bridge and testing how much weight it can hold: the results might really surprise us!
Sink the boat
How do boats float even though they’re made of iron? What’s the difference between a yacht and a raft made of poles and ropes? Let’s find out together by building our own boat, floating it in the tank and loading it with weights to see how much it can hold!
Climb the ramp
A handful of pieces at your disposal and a gauntlet thrown down. Can you build a contraption that can climb up a ramp? All without instructions? Creativity, simplicity and a good dose of testing are the ingredients for success.
Art and perception
Illusions and perception
Let’s discover how our control centre works and how it reacts to sensory hallucinations! We’ll build a brain-shaped hat to identify the areas that light up when we draw, when we talk or when we’re having fun!
A question of perspective
Art and mathematics meet through perspective. A fascinating cross-curricular pathway that will lead the pupils to build a real miniature Ames room. Thanks to the distorted room, they will be able to experience the complex and fascinating world of perspective.
Light painting
Light Painting means drawing with light! A micro-world of creativity to bring striking images and illusions to life using a camera, a light source and a bit of practice.
Stop motion
All it takes is 100 minutes to become the director of a short film. Using various kinds of materials, children will be able to depict a scientific fact in a few seconds of stop-motion animation. Lights, camera, action!
Physics, chemistry and astronomy
Aerodynamics
Discover how humans learned to make their creations fly by studying the nature of birds and air currents, until they managed to travel around the world on two wings, or more!
Balance and centre of gravity
Starting from the basics of physics, with balance and centre of gravity, together we’ll discover where Italy’s centre of gravity is! We’ll find out how to locate the centre of gravity of an irregular shape, and how to build an object that can balance perfectly on the tip of a finger!
Chemistry of the elements
Started in 1869 when Mendeleev produced the first version, the periodic table brings together all the known chemical elements. Through the science communicator’s examples and scientific applications, participants will delve into the world of chemistry and rebuild a table of the elements to take home and continue exploring.
Chemistry of metals
Discover the shiny side of chemistry! In this workshop we explore the world of metals: from their surprising properties to their presence in everyday life. Through experiments, games and curiosities, we learn how to recognise them, use them and… make them react! This workshop requires a fume hood
The genius of Galileo
A scientific journey through the discoveries of one of the greatest scientists in history: Galileo Galilei. Storytelling and live experiments will guide us on this journey through fluid dynamics, inertia, gravity and much more.
Earthquakes and structures
Motion, waves and earthquakes! From geography to physics, in a workshop focused entirely on the movements of the Earth’s crust and their effects.
Hollywood science
Cinema and science: a different way to talk about physics, with experiments and quotes from the biggest action films Hollywood has produced over the last 20 years.
Light
The white light that reaches our planet from the Sun is made up of many colours combined: build a spectroscope and you’ll be able to see them all. A workshop to discover light and its fascinating variations.
Sun, Earth, Moon
We start with a globe and a light bulb to try to understand how our planet moves. With seasons, equinoxes, eclipses and motions, we’ll try to understand how we can be sure that the Earth is round and that it orbits the Sun, and not the other way round! Clouds permitting, we’ll also have the chance to observe the Sun with a solar telescope!
Big Bang Boom
A journey through time and space to discover how it all began: the Big Bang! Through experiments, models and cosmic games we explore the universe, galaxies, stars and the expansion of the cosmos, drawing on recent discoveries too. A scientific adventure from the distant past to a starry future!
Maths
Economics
Money and banknotes, but also trade, bartering and strategy: this is the world of economics. Let’s step into it with this activity, which will get us thinking about how to make strategic choices for our own business.
From cube to sphere
From the construction of the Platonic solids we’ll move on to the analysis of spheres, travelling through the world of maps to investigate an age-old question: how do you represent on a flat surface what lies on a curved one? We’ll find the answers in non-Euclidean geometry.
Top secret
The content of this workshop is top secret. Only experts in mathematics and cryptography can access it and decipher all the necessary information. If you’re interested, book it!
Break the bank
Winning or losing is the age-old dilemma: we are driven to hope beyond all reasonable doubt, searching for a lucky outcome that mathematics itself tells us is practically out of reach. Let’s shine the harsh, relentless light of mathematics on some of the main games of chance.
Friendly maths
To make friends with the purest of the hard sciences, all we need is to present it through gripping puzzles and fun logic games that will show us how topology, logic and reasoning are absolutely within our reach.
Play Decide
Climate refugees
Every year tens of millions of people are forced to migrate because of the effects of climate change. These numbers are set to rise as the climate crisis we are facing gets worse.
Artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence is rapidly changing the world, for better and for worse. More and more expert systems based on artificial intelligence promise to change the way we live, work and interact with each other, and in many cases they are already changing it.
Reuse, repurposing and upcycling
Among the environmental problems we currently face, we cannot fail to mention waste, the future shortage of raw materials for producing material goods, and our excessive use of certain resources, such as water and energy, needed in production chains. Among the possible solutions to the problem is certainly reuse, which means using again objects that would otherwise end up as waste.
Water: blue gold
Water is a limited resource on our planet, and it is unevenly distributed. A complex set of factors – including the waste caused by our development model, the ever-increasing consumption by agriculture and industry, population growth and climate change, which tends to make areas already naturally poor in water resources even drier – means that the “water problem” is ever more pressing and worrying. In some parts of the world, the ownership and use of water have long sparked real conflicts between states.
Climate change
Through their activities, humans exert a growing influence on the climate and on the Earth’s temperature. The development of industry, increasingly intensive agriculture, the use of fossil fuels such as oil, modern lifestyles and many other factors are responsible for an increase in the concentration of gases and chemical compounds in the atmosphere, which are altering and amplifying what used to be the planet’s natural greenhouse effect.
Nutrition and healthy lifestyles
Eating is a political and biological act. Beyond simple calorie counting, our lifestyle reflects our balance with the environment. This debate explores the ethics of consumption and the impact of everyday habits on global health, inviting us to reflect: are we really aware of what fuels our days?
Young people and the mass media
Social media play a key role in modern society, shaping the way we communicate, access information and take part in public life. They can promote freedom of speech, connect communities and drive social change.
Animal testing
In European countries, as in others, animal testing in biomedicine is the subject of heated debate. On the one hand, there is the desire to find new and more effective drugs and treatments. On the other, there is the wish to avoid the death and suffering of animals in achieving this goal. Despite the growing number of alternatives to animal testing, it is not yet possible to rule it out completely. But how far are we allowed to go to improve our health?
Stem cells
How far is it acceptable to go in order to heal? The debate on stem cells swings between the hope of regenerative medicine and respect for the human embryo. This debate examines the value of nascent life against the duty to cure, prompting us to reflect on the moral responsibility of science towards the future of humanity.
Neuroscience and brain enhancement
Drugs created to treat diseases are likely to be able to enhance our natural abilities too. Drugs for treating Alzheimer’s disease will probably also greatly improve normal memory function. Stimulant drugs, now used to treat children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, also increase the ability of the “normal” brain to concentrate. Even our emotional state can be enhanced.