Liceo: ISSC a Sidney

Flavia Ancilotto (1BO), Giorgia Baccan (3AE), Celeste Carlesso (3CE), Ana Gabriela Costantini (3CE), Giovanni Fraschini (3BE), Maddalena Scotton (3BE), Lorenzo Tonolo (1BO), Elena Maria Valonta (1AO) accompagnate dalle professoresse Caterina Rossi ed Eugenia Iovane hanno partecipato dal 12 al 18 maggio alla 16^ International Student Science Conference presso la PLC Sydney.

Il Liceo Marco Foscarini di Venezia partecipa dal 2008 alle International Student Science Conference (ISSC). Il progetto è portato avanti da una rete di scuole che comprende oltre al Liceo Foscarini, The Hutchins School (Tasmania), Nankai High School (Tianjin-China), St.Paul’s Co-Educational College (Hong Kong), Stella Matutina Girls’ High School (Taiwan), The Doon School (India), The PLC Sydney (Australia). Dopo la pausa dovuta alla pandemia, dal 12 al 18 maggio 2023 una delegazione del nostro istituto ha partecipato alla sedicesima edizione della ISSC presso la PLC di Sydney.

Le ISSC hanno la struttura di un convegno scientifico, ciascuna delegazione elabora un proprio progetto scientifico e lo presenta in lingua inglese alle altre delegazioni. Il tema della ISSC di quest’anno è stato “Bright Minds Shine a Light”. Gli studenti, seguite dalle docenti Caterina Rossi ed Eugenia Iovane, hanno lavorato con impegno ed entusiasmo elaborando il progetto “Bringing to light: from Galileo to Venice.” L’abstract del lavoro è pubblicato in calce.

L’evento a Sydney è stata una opportunità di confronto con coetanei appartenenti a diverse culture e un’occasione di approfondimento di temi scientifici di attualità grazie a conferenze e attività pratiche svolte presso l’università di Sydney. Non sono mancati i momenti ricreativi come le visite ai più importanti luoghi della città come l’Opera House e il vicino orto botanico. Per il 135^ l’anniversario della fondazione della scuola, la PLC ha organizzato un concerto nella prestigiosa sala del municipio della città.

16^th International Student Science Conference

PLC Sydney 12 – 18 May 2023

Liceo Marco Foscarini

Bringing to light: from Galileo to Venice

Abstract

A bright mind shines a light … In the early 1600s when Copernican heliocentrism was slowly spreading in the academic community, an Italian scientist, Galileo Galilei, was pointing his telescope to the sky. His telescope reached the magnification of about 10 due to the ability of the Murano glass craftsmen. The beautiful drawings of his observations were published in 1610 in the Sidereus Nuncius (The Starry Messenger) treatise. His description of the Moon, the discovery of Jupiter’s four largest moons, the description of the phases of Venus and the observation of Saturn’s ring were all evidence that the Ptolemy’s geocentric model was untenable, and the celestial bodies were not the translucent and perfect spheres as Aristotle claimed. Like Galileo, we were able to observe the Moon’s craters and the Jupiter’s moons with our school telescope.

The history of Murano glass dates back 1291 when a decree of the Venetian Great Council forced all the glass industries in Venice to be moved to Murano, a small group of islands near Venice. This decision was taken to avoid both the risk of fires which threatened to damage once again the mainly wooden buildings of Venice and to keep a strict control over glassmakers to avoid that the glass knowledge and techniques could escape from the Venetian Republic. Nowadays, Murano glass factories produce artistic glassworks famous all over the world. Our delegation had the chance to visit one of the most important factories in Murano, NasonMoretti Srl, to discover the techniques and the secrets of this art. In addition, we studied how light interacts with glass to create a huge variety of artistic glassworks.

Glass factories need large amounts of energy; the Global Climate Change is forcing society to develop sustainable energy; so, the last part of our project aimed to investigate new technologies to produce energy using sunlight and how the Municipality of Venice is facing this issue considering the landscape constraints due to historical and artistic characteristics of the city. Our delegation met Massimiliano De Martin, Councillor for Environmental and Urban Planning, who explained to us the energy policy for the environment of the Municipality of Venice.