Methodoloy based on non-formal-learning and emotion-nased learning for teaching physics in primary and lower secondary schools.

Teaching Physics in primary and lower secondary schools involves the choice of particular strategies and methodologies, as often the students of these educational stages lack the mathematical tools needed to formalize concepts. Furthermore, in many cases they lack the basic knowledge of many phenomena, the interest in direct observation and experimentation, the participation in the laboratory activity. Very often they have an intuitive and misleading interpretation of some concepts, which causes distortionsin the learning processdifficult to get rid of [Besson, 2004].A relevant example is the physical concept of "density" (or specific weight), which is regularly confused with the mass (weight). In the case under consideration (the school-laboratory project 'From Archimedes to submarines: the concept of density') the concept of specific weight of a body is not introducedas an a priori definition, but as the culmination of a journey rich in discoveries and surprises: a series of experimentsdesigned with the aim of generating an alternation of fun, emotions and moments of reflection. The choice of a non-formal didactic approach, developed in a learning user-friendly environment, and characterized by involving interfaces, gives the opportunity to create a connection between everyday experience and scholastic knowledge. In our design we have always kept in mind the results of recent research on informal/non-formallearning and emotion-based learning, which highlight how the emotional involvement of the learner is able to remove mental blocks and to activate deep structures that generate a stable knowledge [Michelini, 2006; Bachara et. al., 2000; Damasio et. al., 1994].