A glance towards the sky
: this is the title of the project
by Primary School Direzione Didattica I Circolo -
Matteotti
in Gubbio - Umbria (Italy)- class 4C (full time organization), in school year
2004-05: children were 9-10 years old. Astronomy has got such a great fascination on children that it has been used as a means to learn by learning. Looking at the sky we can say
that the real environmental education is on field work, out of the classrooms where it is so unreal and limited. With a careful observation of nature, pupils learned to read it,
collect, classify, organize, put back in order and interprete the
data; they learned to investigate the causes of the phenomena and,
above all, to express the emotions and feelings they proved during the
observation of heavenly bodies. Teachers and pupils had a different
relationship with nature, they worked together on the field work, outside of the traditional school places; they chose to work in a meaningful and very peculiar space; they adopted a behaviour which is respectful and conservative of the
environment as a universal good.