The Dust Catcher: Discovering the Educational Value of the Historical Scientific Heritage

The purpose of this work is to present a physics education project, conducted at the University of Turin, whose goal is studying the educational significance of the history of physics and, in particular, of the history of scientific instruments. In this project, the survey of the scientific collection of the Museum of Physics of the University of Turin is followed by a census of the collections of physics instruments of historical-scientific interest preserved by a sample of schools in Piedmont. This study discusses the third part of the project which is devoted to exploring the expectations of in-service teachers on the usefulness of the history of physics for educational purposes and to designing and testing hands-on activities on electric phenomena inspired by the historical devices preserved by the Museum of Physics. In this paper we present the preliminary results of this latest part of the project. The aim of this project is to show that the dusty equipment in the old Physics Cabinets of Universities and schools, if appropriately studied and re-designed, could once again serve an educational function—that is they might provide us with a better insight into student’s prior knowledge and at the same time promote a better understanding of physical sciences.