La rivista CnS – La Chimica nella Scuola costituisce un ausilio di ordine scientifico, professionale e tecnico per i docenti delle scuole di ogni ordine e grado e dell’Università; si offre come luogo di confronto delle idee e delle esperienze didattiche nelle discipline chimiche.
Recensione del libro Radici siciliane – La corda ingenua di sei grandi personaggi tra storia e immaginazione di Francesco Giuliano
Copyright (c) 2026 Enzo Bonacci https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
Importanza della chiralità e dell’analisi enantioselettiva: applicazioni in campo forense
Chirality is defined as the property of a molecule to exist in two non-superimposable mirror images, known as enantiomers. Despite the presence of numerous physical properties in common, enantiomers exhibit divergent interactions with chiral biological systems, thereby impacting pharmacological activity and toxicity. The thalidomide case represented a significant turning point in the realm of pharmaceutical regulation, underscoring the paramount importance of enantiomeric separation for ensuring drug safety. The advent of sophisticated techniques, such as chiral HPLC in conjunction with mass spectrometry, has rendered the analysis of complex chiral samples with exceptional precision attainable. This analysis is of crucial importance not only for research and clinical practice, but also for forensic science and chemical and forensic intelligence. It allows us to distinguish between legal and illegal uses, identify routes of administration, metabolic processes and synthesis methods.
Copyright (c) 2026 Ina Varfaj https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
Professor Domenico Spinelli, during the five academic years, from 1969 to 1974, in which he worked at the University of Palermo, succeeded in impacting Palermo’s organic chemistry so deeply, both scientifically and humanely, that even today, fifty years after his move to Bologna, his first- and second-generation students from Palermo still remember him fondly. The salient passages of the years he spent in Palermo are reported in this article, in the hope of being able to give an idea of one of the personalities who made a notable contribution to Italian chemistry in the second half of the 20th century.
Copyright (c) 2026 Renato Noto https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
The fascinating story of Paris Green and of the previous pigment, Scheele’s Green, both containing arsenic, is reported here. The problem of poisoning from interior decorations and clothes is described, together with the use of Paris green as rodenticide and for the fight against malaria.
Copyright (c) 2026 Franco Alhaique https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
Il campo di ricerca in didattica della chimica: notizie da oltreconfine
Ricerca in didattica – Una finestra sul mondo
Copyright (c) 2026 Elena Ghibaudi https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
Il “Cruciverba di Mendeleev” come strumento di divulgazione scientifica: un’esperienza di successo tra scuola e università
This article describes the design and organization of the “Mole Day 2024” initiative, an event inspired by the U.S. Mole Day Foundation and adapted for Italy through a periodic table-themed competition. The project involved 94 classes from 30 schools across a wide national territory, totaling over 1000 students, and leveraged the collaboration of undergraduate, master, and PhD students as tutors. The initiative revolved around the use of a crossword puzzle based on chemical element symbols to stimulate learning and interaction, culminating in a final day with awards and interactive activities. The results highlight the effectiveness of playful and collaborative approaches in promoting interest in chemistry among high school students.
Un ponte fra Università e Scuola Secondaria di secondo grado
Copyright (c) 2026 Stefano Alberti, Marina Alloisio, Francisco Ardini, Andrea Basso, Anna Maria Cardinale, Marco Grotti, Lisa Moni, Silvia Vicini https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
Acidi e basi, facciamo un po’ di ordine!
The article describes a learning unit project for primary schools, developed using active teaching methodologies, to classify substances as acidic, basic, or neutral and introduce the concept of pH as a measurement scale. The hands-on learning aims to enable all students, each at their own pace, to master the required knowledge and skills. A modular approach involving a sequence of activities designed to be carried out collectively under the guidance of the teacher structures a process of active knowledge construction, using an inductive approach. At the end of each laboratory activity, the key concepts are formalised in the notebook to structure and consolidate them. Ongoing formative evaluation is planned to monitor students’ progress, as well as a summative evaluation at the end of the didactic unit, aimed at providing the teacher with a final judgment on the students’ learning.
Percorsi didattici per la Scuola primaria
Copyright (c) 2026 Cinzia Amparore, Francesca Turco https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
Un approccio sperimentale induttivo alla regola di Bredt e alle molecole anti-Bredt
Currently, even at a popular science level, the news of a recent and very important discovery has caused quite a stir, concerning the possibility of making stable some so-called anti-Bredt organic molecules; they were previously considered unstable, as a consequence of a rule that has been in force in organic chemistry since 1924. In this article, an inductive experimental approach to this rule is proposed, at the level of basic chemistry, with the main objective of deepening it, providing students with cultural information not limited exclusively to media communication.
Percorsi laboratoriali per la Scuola Secondaria di secondo grado
Copyright (c) 2026 Pasquale Fetto, Roberto Soldà https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
L’esempio della pasta rinforzata come Capolavoro per tecnici chimici
Fortified pasta with ingredients derived from agriculture leftovers or expired foods was already proposed in scientific literature and it could suggest an interesting field at the crossroad between food science and biochemistry for the terminal year of chemistry technical high school, strictly linked with sustainability and territory traditions. In this article we proposed a teaching activity based on Participatory Action Research (PAR) methodology applied to the preparation of fortified pasta with olive paté (OP) and to the design of some simple analysis performed on this material.
Copyright (c) 2026 Valentina Blengini, Serena Oneglio, Romina Giordano, Daniele Solazzo, Cristina Gandolfo, Gian Luigi Puleo https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
2025: un anno difficile per il nostro pianeta
Copyright (c) 2026 Margherita Venturi https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
Recensione del libro Un pensiero ribelle – Maria Bakunin, la signora di Napoli di Mirella Armiero
Copyright (c) 2025 Margherita Venturi https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is one of the most important challenges in the world, with bacteria evolving faster than new drugs. The discovery of lariocidin, an antibiotic derived from Paenibacillus, offers new hope against resistant bacteria. Lasso peptides, including lariocidin, are a promising therapeutic solution due to their stability and antimicrobial activity.
Copyright (c) 2025 Giovanni Pellegrino https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
Dalla curiosità alla ricerca: il mio percorso tra accademia, industria e innovazione farmacologica
Scientific curiosity can become a driving force for both personal and professional growth. In this article, I share my PhD journey in Pharmaceutical Sciences, focused on studying AKT1 as a therapeutic target for cancer and rare diseases. Through computational modeling, in vitro experimentation, and collaboration with industry, I had the opportunity to explore innovative approaches to drug design. This experience enriched not only my scientific skills but also my perspective on the social role of research and the value of scientific education.
Copyright (c) 2025 Erika Primavera https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
Bartolomeo Gosio, dalla candidatura al Nobel all’oblio
Bartolomeo Gosio (1866-1944) discovered the organication of metals in 1891 and purified the first antibiotic (micofenolic acid) two years later, next abandoning research at the turning of the century and dedicating the rest of his professional life to issues of public health. In the light of his seminal discoveries, which led to his nomination for the Nobel Prize in 1922, the oblivion of Gosio is surprising, and related to a series of unfortunate circumstances including the association of the gas named after him (Gosio’s gas) to pseudo-scientific claims in the realm of history and medicine. Rather than for his discoveries, Gosio was long remembered for allegedly carrying out the first studies on penicillin, but his contribution to this field is limited to the invention of the name “penicillin”, which, however, he used in the context of studies on organoarsenical compounds and not of antibiotics. The research on Gosio’s gas provides an interesting starting point for discussing the complexity of environmental issues and their reductive association to a single chemical compound or class of chemical compounds.
Copyright (c) 2025 Giovanni Appendino https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
L’isomerizzazione fotochimica del carvone, la prima reazione fotochimica stereospecifica
Ciamician in 1908 described the first stereospecific photochemical reaction irradiating a natural occurring chiral terpene, carvone. Ciamician proposed a structure for the obtained photoisomeric product without a study devoted to confirming it. Some year later, Sernagiotto proposed, on the basis of some incomplete experimental results, a new structure for the photoisomer. Büchi proposed, on the basis of other experimental but not conclusive results, to return to the structure proposed by Ciamician. Finally, NMR spectrum of the photoisomer, performed in 1965, confirmed the Ciamician structure.
Copyright (c) 2025 Maurizio D’Auria https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
The second part of the article dedicated to the most important material substances that have characterized our world focuses on the characteristics and uses of cement, oil, lithium, rare earths and hydrogen. It reviews not only their positive aspects for the development of the world, but also the problems caused with their extraction, manufacture and use. Furthermore, it is examined the negative influence that some of them have had and still have on the planet’s climate and on our survival.
aspetti negativi connessi al loro utilizzo
Copyright (c) 2025 Fabio Olmi https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
Il miglioramento della didattica e la formazione docenti a Padova
In recent years, the University of Padua has invested substantially in the professional development of its faculty, with a strong emphasis on innovative, student-centered teaching practices. One of its flagship initiatives in this area is the Teaching4Learning (T4L) program—a faculty development model grounded in the principles of Active Learning (AL). The T4L program is designed to provide teachers the skills and strategies needed to implement active and inclusive pedagogies by offering a structured pathway that includes courses, hands-on workshops, teaching labs, peer mentoring, and opportunities for reflective practice. Through this initiative, the university not only enhances the quality of teaching, but also fosters a collaborative academic culture.
Copyright (c) 2025 Laura Orian, Concetta Tino, Giulia Licini https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
L’interpretazione chimica del vivente di Giovanni Villani: un progetto di lettura critica distribuita con le scuole secondarie di secondo grado
This paper presents a collection of reviews of the nine chapters of the book L’interpretazione chimica del vivente by Giovanni Villani, written by high school students who participated in an educational initiative focused on the reading and critical analysis of a scientific essay. The activity was carried out during the 2024–2025 school year as part of the “Piano Lauree Scientifiche – Chimica” program at Università degli Studi di Padova. Fourteen classes from various Italian regions (Veneto, Toscana, Trentino-Alto Adige, e Piemonte) took part in the project. The book served as a springboard for students and their teachers to investigate the theme of life not only from a scientific standpoint, but also through historical and philosophical lenses.
Un progetto di lettura alla Scuola Secondaria di secondo grado
Copyright (c) 2025 Serena Bernardini, Laura Bucciol, Cinzia Vincenza Caia, Maria Paola Colleselli, Federica Dal Molin, Luana De Lorenzo, Alessandra De Togni7, Maria Cristina Finatti, Lucia Giuffreda, Manuela Granella, Assunta Iannone, Fedora Martignago, Enrico Paschetta, Federica Stazi, Valentina Domenici, Laura Orian https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
Dal campionamento alla stima della sua incertezza
This work deals with the PNRR project “campionamento delle matrici ambientali”, whitin we particularly focused on soil and surface water. For these matrices we studied sampling method and procedure for pH analysis. For soil matrix, the sampling uncertainty was estimated using the ANOVA method.
Percorsi laboratoriali per la Scuola Secondaria
Copyright (c) 2025 Francesco Pellegrino, Domenico Lavieri https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
This work represents an example of learning path on gems aimed at providing a structured, progressive experience for learners to acquire specific skills and fundamental knowledge of biology. The laboratory methodology is based on a phenomenological-inductive approach that involved learners in practical and reflective activities. This approach helps learners to achieve solid knowledge, which are consistent to the cognitive structures of pre-adolescents. Gems also provide an example of biological transformation that students can directly observe and experience, inferring its importance.
Copyright (c) 2025 Paola Savini, Antonietta Grande https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
Ricchi premi e cotillon da distribuire in classe
Un chimico senior racconta… incontri importanti nella sua vita accademica
The present article is the first-person account of a series of encounters that have represented the path of a chemist in his professional life over the course of more than half a century.
Copyright (c) 2025 Domenico Misiti https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
ChemEscape: studenti coinvolti nella chimica
Copyright (c) 2025 Monja Schilling; Giulia Quaglia https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
La teoria molecolare di Ampère: una visione di primo Ottocento carica di stimoli di riflessione
André-Marie Ampère (1775-1836) was a universal genius, ranging from mathematics, to physics, to chemistry. Encouraged by the chemist Berthollet, in 1814 he published an elaborate theory of molecular structure that took into account Gay-Lussac’s law of combination volumes “To provide the means of predicting a priori the fixed ratios according to which bodies combine, bringing their different combinations back to principles that would be the expression of a law of nature”. In this work he enunciated, independently of Avogadro (1811), the law of direct proportionality between the volume of a gas and the number of particles contained therein, independent of their nature. Based on the atomistic vision inaugurated by Newton (1704) and the theory of short-range molecular forces developed by Laplace (1806), Ampère developed a complex geometric-molecular theory that, starting from only two fundamental forms, the tetrahedron and the octahedron, constructed stable molecular structures in accordance with the law of combination volumes of reagents and products. Ampère’s theory was not welcomed by the chemists of the time, however it spread and introduced for the first time the stereochemical vision of molecules and reactions that was finally affirmed in the hypothesis of tetrahedral carbon by van’t Hoff and Le Bel (1874). These anticipations, eclipsed by the nineteenth-century positivism that rejected the existence of atoms and molecules, later returned in various forms and still retain an educational and epistemological value today.
Copyright (c) 2025 Vincenzo Villani https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
The article reviews the most important material substances that have characterized our world. The most important characteristics and uses of five materials are examined, namely sand, salt, coal, iron and copper. It is discussed not only the positive aspects that they have had or have on the development of the world examined, but also the big problems that they have caused with their extraction, manufacture and use. Furthermore, it is examined the negative influence that some of them have had and still have on the planet’s climate and on our survival.
L’enciclica Laudato si’ di papa Francesco
The many problems of our time are addressed and discussed in a simple and clear way in the encyclical Laudato si’ by Pope Francesco. It is a small but very important book that describes the situation of the human society in our common home, the Earth. To underline the great importance of this encyclical and its profound theological, political and social meaning, the main themes it deals with will be examined.
Copyright (c) 2025 Vincenzo Balzani https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
Le nuove frontiere della catalisi ecosostenibile: un viaggio, dai catalizzatori omogenei alla fotocatalisi, ripercorrendo le tappe storiche più rilevanti per il suo sviluppo
Catalytic processes are behind many chemical reactions, both industrial and non-industrial. Since the 1990s, with the rise of Green Chemistry concept and its 12 principles for making chemistry more sustainable and environmentally friendly, scientists around the world have been increasingly interested in understanding the central role of catalysis. Understanding how catalysts work is very important since they help chemical reactions to take place faster and more efficiently, using less energy and producing less waste. This short review covers the scientific advancements during the past 30 years which allowed the development of catalytic processes in a more eco-friendly way. All this, starting from homogeneous catalysis, moving through hybrid multifunctional catalysts, and ending with photocatalysis, by tracing a brief history of catalysis, its advancement and the most relevant Nobel Prizes specifically awarded to it.
Copyright (c) 2025 Marcello Crucianelli, Nicola Di Nicola https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
Insegnare (e imparare) la chimica attraverso i musei e le collezioni di strumenti scientifici
In this paper, the educational potential of historical scientific instruments was explored and implemented as part of a special teaching project supported by the University of Pisa during the 2023-2024 academic year. The project, titled Teaching (and Learning) Chemistry through Museums and Collections of Scientific Instruments, was coordinated by the authors of this article and it served as an integrative activity for the optional courses “Fundamentals and Methodologies for Teaching Chemistry Education” (Bachelor’s Degree in Chemistry) and “Introduction to Medicinal Chemistry” (Master’s Degree in Chemistry). The project involved fifteen students and resulted in the valorisation and enhancement of part of the collection of historical scientific instruments of the Department of Chemistry and Industrial Chemistry at the University of Pisa. Moreover, the undergraduate students actively contributed in creating the museum collection’s website, enriched with historical and educational descriptions of the instruments. This collaborative work later enabled the undergraduate students to conduct demonstration teaching activities for high school students, which were presented during a concluding event of the project. This article will detail the various steps of the activity and discuss its educational, formative, and cultural outcomes, also taking into account the feedback received from the students.
Copyright (c) 2025 Valentina Domenici, Gaetano Angelici https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
La densità come concetto chiave: un percorso verticale e fenomenologico
This article presents a vertical teaching path on density, designed for students from middle school to university. A phenomenological approach and the macro-micro-symbolic triangle are used to build a progressive understanding of the concept. Common misconceptions and preconceptions are addressed, with experiments such as saline solution stratification supporting the correction of erroneous ideas. The article incorporates active teaching methodologies and reflects on how density can serve as a gateway to fundamental scientific literacy.
Percorsi laboratoriali per la Scuola Superiore
Copyright (c) 2025 Marco Caruso https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0