Cross Fertilization Between Museums and Schools, Science and Art, History and Multimedia

In 2011 Pavia University celebrated its 650th birthday. This provided the opportunity to propose the Neverland project whose purpose was to overcome the division between formal and informal science education. A number of classes (various age groups) from a group of schools in the province of Pavia took part in the project. The University Museums (Physics, Medicine, Mineralogy, Natural History, Botanic Garden) and Laboratories joined forces. Each class adopted a famous Pavia scientist of the past (including Volta, Scarpa, Scopoli, Taramelli and Golgi), visited the corresponding museum and undertook specific laboratory activities. Once back at school, the information gathered was related to the history of modern figurative art focusing on the role of analogical inference, often relevant both in scientific and artistic innovation. Participatory videos and multimedia were produced. The Neverland project draws on the past work of the History of Physics Group starting in the 1980s and 1990s which aimed to preserve, restore and explain through 3D multimedia old physics instruments. This work led to the foundation of the University (Science) Museum System. Interactive exhibitions were dedicated to Volta (1999), Einstein (an international project run in 2005 in conjunction with Berlin and Jerusalem and with contributions from Oldenburg and Pisa), Galileo (2009), and the history of the energy conservation principle (2011). In all of them, high school students were trained to play the role of “explainers”, carrying out a series of historical experiments with younger pupils, classmates, and the general public. The various activities were coordinated by university students. The youngest participants were encouraged to develop forms of “artistic” expression based on the feelings and ideas experienced in their exposure to scientific activities.