Getting involved, experimenting firsthand, learning while having fun and starting with questions and not answers are the key ingredients of HOP Hands-On Physics (www.hopscuola.it), a project for middle schools that offers an educational kit and training course for mathematics, science and technology teachers. The project is designed, implemented and promoted by CERN, the Agnelli Foundation, and INFN National Institute for Nuclear Physics, with the support of Intesa Sanpaolo and Stellantis, and it is completely free for teachers and schools.

Following a pilot phase in spring 2023, HOP was launched last autumn to offer Italian middle school teachers an innovative and engaging educational approach to teaching STEM disciplines and returns this year with the second edition that will welcome 650 teachers from all over Italy.

Teachers participating in the project will receive the teaching kit and attend the training day to learn how to use it in the classroom and find out more about the teaching method on which it is based, Inquiry-Based Learning. The kit contains the materials needed to carry out approximately 20 laboratory exercises, described in a teaching guide that also suggests to the teacher a number of ways of conducting the activities in the classroom. The topics of the activities, chosen according to the envisaged middle school curriculum, are the scientific method, pressure, light and electricity. The training day, conducted by INFN researchers and experts in communication and education, is thus an opportunity for teachers to approach the CERN and INFN research world and to experience firsthand the activities and method they will be able to bring into the classroom thanks to the kit.

Information on how to take part in the HOP project free of charge and register for the 2024-25 school year training days, which begin in mid-October can be found at this link: www.hopscuola.it.