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 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
Iscriversi ai Corsi di Laurea in Chimica: uno studio sulle motivazioni alla base della scelta
Academic drop-out is influenced by a wide range of factors, including social, economic, and psychological aspects. In this preliminary study, we focus on the psychological factors and explore the motivations driving university freshmen to enroll in a chemistry program. To achieve this, we surveyed approximately 1,000 students from various Italian universities, assessing their motivations, attitudes, identity, and self-efficacy in chemistry. A cluster analysis identified four distinct student profiles: Moderately Motivated, Highly Motivated, Differently Motivated, and Failed Admission, each significantly associated with the contextual variables measured. Our findings reveal that fewer than one in five chemistry freshmen are highly motivated, highlighting the need for greater attention to orientation policies at both local and national levels.
Copyright (c) 2025 Oreste Tarallo, Alexa Fantozzi, Italo Testa https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
Attività laboratoriali del PLS Chimica: un’opportunità per insegnanti e studenti
For many years now, PLS has offered teachers and students, in the three-year period of secondary school, the opportunity to practically try their hand at various chemistry topics. The aim that has accompanied these activities since its inception is both to bring out scientific vocations in students (in our case particularly in the chemical field) and to contribute to the training of science teachers with new teaching proposals. The common thread in the PLS Chemistry activities of the current academic year was “The colors of chemistry” and was divided into three laboratory activities which involved different disciplines present on site. In this communication, the educational ideas offered as part of the project and the students’ response will be discussed.
Copyright (c) 2025 Maria Funicello https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
Verso la sostenibilità e …oltre! Utilizzo del Game-based learning per la promozione della chimica sostenibile nelle scuole secondarie
Green and sustainable chemistry is an important piece of the skills puzzle needed to foster a cultural shift in society toward sustainability, circular economy and decarbonization. We propose a learning path on Chemistry and Sustainability which exploits the Game-Based Learning and is structured in two steps. The first one is to introduce and contextualize the concepts with the games “Sustainable Crosswords”, “New materials from Waste,” and “Reduce, Recycle, Reuse,” and the second one to go into details and consolidate with the game “Toward Sustainability... and Beyond”. The training objectives include both cognitive processes and learning content.
Promozione della cultura chimica/scientifica
Copyright (c) 2025 Maria Luisa Testa, Marco Russo, Chiara Aliotta, Alberto Zanelli, Armida Torreggiani, Francesca Deganello https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
I giochi di Avogadro della Società Chimica Italiana
Games are a powerful educational tool, as confirmed by philosophers and pedagogists who highlight its importance in developing skills such as problem-solving and creativity. Chemistry, often seen as an abstract discipline, can benefit from a playful approach. Giochi della Chimica, organized by Società Chimica Italiana since 1984, have been extended to lower secondary schools with the Giochi di Avogadro. The first edition, held in the 2023-2024 school year, saw the participation of 1700 students from all over Italy. The results show a high level of engagement, with positive feedback from both students and teachers, confirming the effectiveness of this approach in stimulating active learning.
Copyright (c) 2025 Alessandro Abbotto, Paola Ambrogi, Sabrina Donghi, Luigi Falciola, Roberto Fattorusso, Alice Severi, Margherita Venturi https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
La competizione “Giochi della Chimica”: analisi dei risultati degli studenti e partecipazione
Since 1984, the Italian Chemical Society has organized the “Giochi della Chimica”, competitions for High Schools. The individual competition is divided into 3 classes: A; B; C. For each class, the competition includes 3 phases: Institute Phase; Regional Finals; National Final. From 2024 on, a team competition has been also organized (a team is made of 4 students). Questions for both competitions are written by a Questions Commission and are based on a dedicated Syllabus. The most talented students from the National Final are selected for participating in the Italian delegation of International Chemistry Olympiad. This communication will present and analyze the participation and the results of the last edition.
Copyright (c) 2025 Alessandro Abbotto, Gianluigi Albano, Marta Da Pian, Luigi Falciola, Roberto Fattorusso, Alice Severi, Mariaroberta Tersigni https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
Il contributo di Science on Stage all’educazione STEM
This contribution reports on a short history of SonS and its activities to promote science education and on the outcomes of the 2024 European SonS Festival, in which the Italian delegates presented several innovative Chemistry-based projects. It also presents the coming Italian and European editions.
Copyright (c) 2025 Paola Ambrogi https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
Strutture tridimensionali nei manuali di Chimica di fine Ottocento e inizio Novecento
Graphical representations of three-dimensional structures play a pivotal role in the field of chemistry education. Their correct interpretation is indeed essential for a full understanding of basic concepts that are central for both organic and inorganic chemistry. Students should have a deep knowledge of the correct meaning of the symbolic representations that appear in school and university manuals in order to avoid misunderstandings and a meaningless learning of the discipline. The aim of the present work is to analyse two important historical examples: the three-dimensional representations of tetrahedral carbon, proposed by van’t Hoff and Le Bel in 1874 to describe the physical isomerism of organic compounds, and the geometry of metal complexes introduced by Werner in 1893. This work investigates the way in which these three-dimensional representations were received and presented in school and university textbooks published in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, before the introduction of techniques of structural investigation such as X-ray crystallography.
Copyright (c) 2025 Matteo Chioccioli https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
Progettazione e sperimentazione in classe di una sequenza didattica sui concetti di dipolo permanente e istantaneo
The intertwining of chemical epistemology and didactics may foster educational approaches capable to overcome conceptual problems in chemistry. We discuss some aspects of this relationship and present the theoretical framework adopted for designing a teaching sequence on intermolecular forces.
Copyright (c) 2025 Nicolò Cimadamore, Marco Ghirardi, Alberto Regis, Elena Ghibaudi https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
La Chimica delle Macromolecole e la Complessità nei racconti di Primo Levi: La chiave a stella
Primo Levi (1919-1987) was a macromolecular chemist and a famous writer. Director at SIVA (Società Italiana Vernici e Affini, 1953-1973), he worked for a long time and with passion on all the problems connected with the synthesis, production and use of paints based on thermoplastic and thermosetting polymers. His work as a chemist will represent an inexhaustible source of literary inspiration on the complexity of human and scientific problems. In this way, through stories and anecdotes, Levi lightly introduces in his writings, chemical arguments of great interest from education and epistemological point of view.