Integrating Science, Economy, Art, and Environmental Respect into School Curricula

The project involves the integration of science, economy, art, and environmental respect courses into the regular educational programming of kindergartens, primary schools, and middle schools. Steam&e is promoted by La Compagnia dei Figliuoli, the non-profit association established in 2018 to relaunch, in collaboration with the Grimaldi Foundation, the educational activities of the Istituto il Nuovo Bianchi. From January 2024, the two schools have been equipped with LifeVac® equipment to facilitate rescue operations for children in case of choking emergencies, and a weekly anti-legionella treatment is underway. The aim is to introduce children from an early age, and from primary and secondary schools, to scientific, technological, engineering, and mathematical disciplines, with attention to art, culture, and environmental respect. Steam&e is born with this philosophy: a project, promoted in Naples by Il Nuovo Bianchi and the Istituto Scuole Pie, which associates and integrates in the acronym the themes of Stem (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics), the A of art and culture, and the E of Environmental for environmental sustainability themes. The project will start from the next school year, after a trial that took place in the last two years, and involves the integration of science, economy, art, and environmental respect courses into the regular educational programming of kindergartens, primary schools, and middle schools. Steam&e is promoted by La Compagnia dei Figliuoli: the non-profit association established in 2018 to relaunch in Naples, in collaboration with the Grimaldi Foundation, the educational activities of the Istituto il Nuovo Bianchi as a bilingual institute for primary and kindergarten education, aiming to create an excellent educational reality for the educational proposal and, at the same time, guarantee the same education to the less fortunate segments of the territory. Since 2021, the Company has relaunched with the same philosophy the Istituto Scuole Pie Napoletane di Fuorigrotta, an institution founded by the Piarist Fathers in 1954, which, in addition to kindergarten and primary school, also has middle school. "Steam&e," says the president of La Compagnia dei Figliuoli, Carmine Esposito, "is born to introduce children from an early age to scientific subjects, art, and sustainability themes, to offer them more professional opportunities in order to seize the opportunities that come from technological innovation and the ecological transition and to make our economic system more competitive thanks to the skills and talents of young people." The experimentation of the project started with workshops and laboratories already during Covid and distance learning. In 2022, the Stem4Sud project was launched at Il Nuovo Bianchi, promoted by a group of associations and companies led by La Compagnia dei Figliuoli and the Accademia di Gagliato Globale, which sees as president of the Scientific Committee the former Chief Learning Futurist of Google, Sydney Savion. "Stem 4 Sud," explains Carmine Esposito, "experiments a new way to bring sciences to school: peer-to-peer learning. At the Pontano Institute and the Scuole Pie, a group of primary school students presented a science workshop with practical experiments to their peers. This is an innovative initiative, aimed at empowering and motivating boys and girls and promoting Stem subjects, which are of fundamental importance for the jobs of the future. The group of mini-experts from the Istituto il Nuovo Bianchi thus explained the Newton's disc and the Benham's disc, as well as the drawing bot to the students of the visited schools. Thanks to the Stem4Sud-TwinScience Kits, which allow practical learning, it is possible to build different scientific experiments, involving children and making them authors of their own learning. In addition to scientific learning, students have fun but also learn different soft skills while presenting, such as public speaking, relating to others, observing, analyzing, and working independently." "La Compagnia dei Figliuoli was born," continues Carmine Esposito, "to give concreteness to the equality of access to education indicated in the Constitution. An education with high standards, promoting at the same time civic education, respect for the environment, coexistence among families of different backgrounds and neighborhoods; we have done so successfully by relaunching Il Nuovo Bianchi and the Istituto Scuole Pie. The revival of Naples also passes through the school, and we want to do our part." From January 2024, the two schools have been equipped with LifeVac® equipment to facilitate rescue operations for children in case of choking emergencies, with the use of a defibrillator and a solution that is installed at the system level and prevents and reduces the risk of legionella infection.