An interdisciplinary course based on Tomás Saraceno’s aerosolar sculptures searching for new languages in physics education

The European research project FEDORA is looking for new languages to fill in the gap between science education environments and the outer world, to enhance imagination and the capacity to talk about contemporary challenges. This thesis is framed in FEDORA project and aims to contribute to the search of new languages in physics education. Specifically, a teaching course was designed as a space of intersection and collaboration between physics and contemporary art, and it was implemented with third-year high school students at the aeronautical Baracca Institute in Forlì (Italy). The course was designed on the Aerocene project by the artist Tomás Saraceno and aims to provide a context for physics application as well as to enhance the imagination of a more desirable future. It also aims to have students develop the sustainability competences oulined in the GreenComp, the European sustainability competence framework. The present work was guided by the following research questions. What kind of sustainability competence can be developed thanks to the encounter between physics and Aerocene artistic vision? What kind of elements can emerge from this intersection area to characterize the new languages FEDORA project is searching for? Data collected through a questionnaire and written essays show the high level of students engagement and their appreciation for the concrete context of applying physics concepts and for the goal of exploring new ways toward a more sustainable future. The course involved, with several degrees of depth, all areas of the competences outlined in the GreenComp. The integration of physics knowledge and the emotions elicited by Saraceno’s aerosolar sculptures generated an enriching space to nourish imagination. It prompted students to expand their idea of flight and to seek new ways of expressing themselves at the boundary between the worlds of art and science.