The course is part of the third-mission project of the DFA for 2022-2023 on the communication of science and its history. The project, entitled “Scienza dal mondo islamico all’Europa di oggi - Arricchimenti incrociati tra passato e futuro” [Science from the Islamic world to today's Europe - Cross-fertilisation between past and future], will present to the public various elements of the history of science and of cutting-edge physics, to shed light on the cross-fertilisation of science brought by the interactions between various countries and cultures.

An important part of the project is based on the creation of working groups, which will be made of PhD students of the Department of Physics and Astronomy, and members of Padua foreign communities, in particular Muslim communities. After a period of specific training, these working groups will work on the creation of new communication projects to be presented to the public.

Please note that this is a 1-year project, and the present PhD course will be held only for the academic year 2022-2023.

When and how long?  24 hours, from November 2022 to May 2023

Objectives:
The main objective of the course is to provide students with knowledge, ideas and tools to communicate science and its history to the public. The course will examine in particular scientific research and teaching practices from the Islamic world to today’s Europe.
During the course, students will have the opportunity of working in groups, with people of various nationalities and different background, which is a challenge and, of course, a great opportunity of sharing knowledge and experiences.

After the course, students should be able to:

• explain and discuss different approaches to communicate science and its history;
• look for  and critically discuss primary and secondary sources in the history of science;
• design new projects of science communication.

Contents of the course:

• Introduction to the history of physics and astronomy, methodologies and approaches
• Elements of the history of science in the Islamic world and in Europe
• Introduction to science museums and their communication tools
• Communicating science and its history: students will see possible tools that can be used to communicate science and its history to the public. In particular, they will have the opportunity of attending conferences, lecture-demonstrations, guided visits to the Giovanni Poleni Museum of Padua University Department of Physics and Astronomy, hands-on laboratories to work with copies of historical scientific instruments.  For example, a hands-on workshop on Islamic scientific instruments will be proposed by experts from Oxford and Istanbul Universities. 
• In the second part of the course, students will be involved in the design of new communication projects on the topics related to the course.

For most of the activities described, PhD students will work within mixed working-groups made of PhD DFA students and members of Padua foreign communities, mainly Islamic communities.
Each of these working-groups will prepare his own communication project by the end of the course.

Examination:
The evaluation will be based on the communication project resulting from the group work.

Teachers and tutors:
Giulio Peruzzi, Sofia Talas, Taha Arslan (Istanbul University), Silke Ackerman (Oxford University), Fanny Marcon, Giulia Nicchio, and the guides and tutors already active at Giovanni Poleni Museum.