Ilaria De Angelis - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
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Papers by Ilaria De Angelis
arXiv (Cornell University), Jan 16, 2023
Astronomy & Geophysics
A DIY planetary projector has seeded a new community
Physics Education, Oct 5, 2022
School visits to research laboratories or facilities represent a unique way to bring students clo... more School visits to research laboratories or facilities represent a unique way to bring students closer to science and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) careers. However, such visits can be very expensive for students and teachers, in terms of both time and money. In this paper, we present a possible alternative to on-site visits consisting in an activity addressed to high school students that makes use of a VR application to make them "enter" into a particle physics experiment. This proposal can represent a valid way of guaranteeing a visit to a research centre for all schools, regardless of their social or geographical origin. We describe the tests we carried out with a focus group of teachers and their students, and the obtained results.
Journal of Physics: Conference Series
The Italian PLS-“Piano Lauree Scientifiche” project has among its objectives the improvement of s... more The Italian PLS-“Piano Lauree Scientifiche” project has among its objectives the improvement of school-university cooperation, with a special emphasis on in-service teacher professional development. In pursuit of such goal, growing resources and an increasing effort to strengthen the collaboration with schools have been employed in the past years. A working group within the physics section of the PLS project has developed a questionnaire to inquire about teacher formation activities organized during the past five years. After extensive revision and testing, the university network of PLS-Physics was asked to fill the questionnaire. The resulting data from 139 initiatives provides an interesting perspective on the kind of activities, organizational choices and educational priorities for teacher professional development within the PLS-physics project.
arXiv (Cornell University), Feb 25, 2022
Introducing Modern Physics represents an increasingly urgent need, towards which physics educatio... more Introducing Modern Physics represents an increasingly urgent need, towards which physics education concentrates many efforts. In order to contribute to this attempt, at the Department of Mathematics and Physics of Roma Tre University in Rome we focused on the possibility of treating General Relativity (GR) at high school level. We started with an interactive activity addressed to students that exploits the rubber sheet analogy (RSA) to show various phenomena related to gravity using the concept of space-time. Then, having verified its effectiveness, we began to include it among the initiatives the Department carry for high school teacher professional development, with the explicit aim of making them capable of carrying on the activity autonomously in the classrooms. In this paper, we analyse the teacher training approach we realized, and all the materials developed.
European Planetary Science Congress, Sep 1, 2018
EPSC-DPS Joint Meeting 2019, Sep 1, 2019
EDULEARN Proceedings, 2020
EDULEARN Proceedings, 2021
In the last years it is becoming more and more evident the importance in providing to the student... more In the last years it is becoming more and more evident the importance in providing to the students, and people in general, a more realistic view on the scientific research world. In this framework many initiatives are beeing carried out to put students closer to scientists. The Astrophysics Masterclass, held in our Department, is an example of such activities, consisting in a one-day outreach event during which high school students experience the research methods in the astrophysics field. In this paper we describe this activity, which allows the participants to work on real research data in a real research center.
Physics Education, 2020
In this paper, an educational tool is proposed to show the internal photoelectric effect in a sim... more In this paper, an educational tool is proposed to show the internal photoelectric effect in a simple and clear way for Undergraduate Physics courses or High Schools. Experimental evidence of the photoelectric effect is particularly important in the didactic experience. This effect is fundamental to introduce students to the world of quantum mechanics, and to the concept of quantized energy. However, it often requires uneconomical and not easy to use equipment. For this reason, here we describe the realization of a simple and low-cost system based on the LED to LED structure; LEDs can in fact act as light sources, but also as photodetectors, being sensitive to wavelengths equal to or shorter than the predominant wavelength they emit. Through the lightning of LEDs of different colors, we thus show that the verification of the photoelectric effect becomes easy.
Astronomy & Astrophysics, 2010
Aims. Evidence is mounting that the main ingredients of the unification models of active galactic... more Aims. Evidence is mounting that the main ingredients of the unification models of active galactic nuclei may behave differently from expectations, and be intimately related to fundamental physical parameters. The availability of high signal-to-noise broad-band X-ray spectra provides us with the opportunity to study in detail all the contributions from the materials invoked in these models, and infer their general properties, including whether their presence or absence is related to other quantities. Methods. We present a long (100 ks) Suzaku observation of one of the X-ray brightest AGN, MCG+8-11-11. These data are complemented with the 54-month Swift BAT spectrum, allowing us to perform a broad-band fit to the 0.6-150 keV range. Results. The fits performed in the 0.6-10 keV band provide results consistent with those of a a previous XMM-Newton observation, i.e. a lack of a soft excess, warm absorption along the line of sight, a large Compton reflection component (R 1), and an absence of a relativistic component of the neutral iron Kα emission line. However, when the PIN and Swift BAT data are included, the reflection amount drops significantly (R 0.2−0.3), and a relativistic iron line is required, the latter being confirmed by a phenomenological analysis in a restricted energy band (3-10 keV). When a self-consistent model is applied to the whole broad-band data, the observed reflection component appears to be entirely associated with the relativistic component of the iron Kα line. Conclusions. The implied scenario, though strongly model-dependent, requires that all the reprocessing spectral components from Compton-thick material be associated with the accretion disc, and no evidence of a classical pc-scale torus is found. The narrow core of the neutral iron Kα line is therefore produced in Compton-thin material, such as the BLR, similarly to what is found in another Seyfert galaxy, NGC 7213, but with the notable difference that MCG+8-11-11 presents spectral signatures from an accretion disc. The very low accretion rate of NGC 7213 could explain the lack of relativistic signatures in its spectrum, but the absence of the torus in both sources is more difficult to explain, since their luminosities are comparable, and their accretion rates are completely different.
Physics Education, 2021
Teaching modern physics in high school is of increasingly importance as it can offer students a m... more Teaching modern physics in high school is of increasingly importance as it can offer students a more realistic and updated vision of the world, and can provide an opportunity to understand the most recent scientific discoveries. In this context, general relativity (GR) occupies a prominent place, since it is related to astonishing scientific results, such as the first image of a black hole or the discovery of gravitational waves. In this paper we describe an educational proposal aimed at teaching GR in high schools in a fun and playful way using the so-called rubber sheet analogy. We present a set of instructions to build a simple and low-cost space-time simulator, and a series of related educational cards that guide the teacher in the implementation of the activities step by step. This work is the result of a long and productive debate among Italian high school teachers who have collaborated for many years with the Department of Mathematics and Physics of Roma Tre University in Rom...
Teaching modern physics in high school is of increasingly importance as it can offer students a m... more Teaching modern physics in high school is of increasingly importance as it can offer students a more realistic and updated vision of the world, and can provide an opportunity to understand the most recent scientific discoveries. In this context, general relativity (GR) occupies a prominent place, since it is related to astonishing scientific results, such as the first image of a black hole or the discovery of gravitational waves. In this paper we describe an educational proposal aimed at teaching GR in high schools in a fun and playful way using the so-called rubber sheet analogy. We present a set of instructions to build a simple and low-cost space-time simulator, and a series of related educational cards that guide the teacher in the implementation of the activities step by step. This work is the result of a long and productive debate among Italian high school teachers who have collaborated for many years with the Department of Mathematics and Physics of Roma Tre University in Rom...
arXiv (Cornell University), Jan 16, 2023
Astronomy & Geophysics
A DIY planetary projector has seeded a new community
Physics Education, Oct 5, 2022
School visits to research laboratories or facilities represent a unique way to bring students clo... more School visits to research laboratories or facilities represent a unique way to bring students closer to science and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) careers. However, such visits can be very expensive for students and teachers, in terms of both time and money. In this paper, we present a possible alternative to on-site visits consisting in an activity addressed to high school students that makes use of a VR application to make them "enter" into a particle physics experiment. This proposal can represent a valid way of guaranteeing a visit to a research centre for all schools, regardless of their social or geographical origin. We describe the tests we carried out with a focus group of teachers and their students, and the obtained results.
Journal of Physics: Conference Series
The Italian PLS-“Piano Lauree Scientifiche” project has among its objectives the improvement of s... more The Italian PLS-“Piano Lauree Scientifiche” project has among its objectives the improvement of school-university cooperation, with a special emphasis on in-service teacher professional development. In pursuit of such goal, growing resources and an increasing effort to strengthen the collaboration with schools have been employed in the past years. A working group within the physics section of the PLS project has developed a questionnaire to inquire about teacher formation activities organized during the past five years. After extensive revision and testing, the university network of PLS-Physics was asked to fill the questionnaire. The resulting data from 139 initiatives provides an interesting perspective on the kind of activities, organizational choices and educational priorities for teacher professional development within the PLS-physics project.
arXiv (Cornell University), Feb 25, 2022
Introducing Modern Physics represents an increasingly urgent need, towards which physics educatio... more Introducing Modern Physics represents an increasingly urgent need, towards which physics education concentrates many efforts. In order to contribute to this attempt, at the Department of Mathematics and Physics of Roma Tre University in Rome we focused on the possibility of treating General Relativity (GR) at high school level. We started with an interactive activity addressed to students that exploits the rubber sheet analogy (RSA) to show various phenomena related to gravity using the concept of space-time. Then, having verified its effectiveness, we began to include it among the initiatives the Department carry for high school teacher professional development, with the explicit aim of making them capable of carrying on the activity autonomously in the classrooms. In this paper, we analyse the teacher training approach we realized, and all the materials developed.
European Planetary Science Congress, Sep 1, 2018
EPSC-DPS Joint Meeting 2019, Sep 1, 2019
EDULEARN Proceedings, 2020
EDULEARN Proceedings, 2021
In the last years it is becoming more and more evident the importance in providing to the student... more In the last years it is becoming more and more evident the importance in providing to the students, and people in general, a more realistic view on the scientific research world. In this framework many initiatives are beeing carried out to put students closer to scientists. The Astrophysics Masterclass, held in our Department, is an example of such activities, consisting in a one-day outreach event during which high school students experience the research methods in the astrophysics field. In this paper we describe this activity, which allows the participants to work on real research data in a real research center.
Physics Education, 2020
In this paper, an educational tool is proposed to show the internal photoelectric effect in a sim... more In this paper, an educational tool is proposed to show the internal photoelectric effect in a simple and clear way for Undergraduate Physics courses or High Schools. Experimental evidence of the photoelectric effect is particularly important in the didactic experience. This effect is fundamental to introduce students to the world of quantum mechanics, and to the concept of quantized energy. However, it often requires uneconomical and not easy to use equipment. For this reason, here we describe the realization of a simple and low-cost system based on the LED to LED structure; LEDs can in fact act as light sources, but also as photodetectors, being sensitive to wavelengths equal to or shorter than the predominant wavelength they emit. Through the lightning of LEDs of different colors, we thus show that the verification of the photoelectric effect becomes easy.
Astronomy & Astrophysics, 2010
Aims. Evidence is mounting that the main ingredients of the unification models of active galactic... more Aims. Evidence is mounting that the main ingredients of the unification models of active galactic nuclei may behave differently from expectations, and be intimately related to fundamental physical parameters. The availability of high signal-to-noise broad-band X-ray spectra provides us with the opportunity to study in detail all the contributions from the materials invoked in these models, and infer their general properties, including whether their presence or absence is related to other quantities. Methods. We present a long (100 ks) Suzaku observation of one of the X-ray brightest AGN, MCG+8-11-11. These data are complemented with the 54-month Swift BAT spectrum, allowing us to perform a broad-band fit to the 0.6-150 keV range. Results. The fits performed in the 0.6-10 keV band provide results consistent with those of a a previous XMM-Newton observation, i.e. a lack of a soft excess, warm absorption along the line of sight, a large Compton reflection component (R 1), and an absence of a relativistic component of the neutral iron Kα emission line. However, when the PIN and Swift BAT data are included, the reflection amount drops significantly (R 0.2−0.3), and a relativistic iron line is required, the latter being confirmed by a phenomenological analysis in a restricted energy band (3-10 keV). When a self-consistent model is applied to the whole broad-band data, the observed reflection component appears to be entirely associated with the relativistic component of the iron Kα line. Conclusions. The implied scenario, though strongly model-dependent, requires that all the reprocessing spectral components from Compton-thick material be associated with the accretion disc, and no evidence of a classical pc-scale torus is found. The narrow core of the neutral iron Kα line is therefore produced in Compton-thin material, such as the BLR, similarly to what is found in another Seyfert galaxy, NGC 7213, but with the notable difference that MCG+8-11-11 presents spectral signatures from an accretion disc. The very low accretion rate of NGC 7213 could explain the lack of relativistic signatures in its spectrum, but the absence of the torus in both sources is more difficult to explain, since their luminosities are comparable, and their accretion rates are completely different.
Physics Education, 2021
Teaching modern physics in high school is of increasingly importance as it can offer students a m... more Teaching modern physics in high school is of increasingly importance as it can offer students a more realistic and updated vision of the world, and can provide an opportunity to understand the most recent scientific discoveries. In this context, general relativity (GR) occupies a prominent place, since it is related to astonishing scientific results, such as the first image of a black hole or the discovery of gravitational waves. In this paper we describe an educational proposal aimed at teaching GR in high schools in a fun and playful way using the so-called rubber sheet analogy. We present a set of instructions to build a simple and low-cost space-time simulator, and a series of related educational cards that guide the teacher in the implementation of the activities step by step. This work is the result of a long and productive debate among Italian high school teachers who have collaborated for many years with the Department of Mathematics and Physics of Roma Tre University in Rom...
Teaching modern physics in high school is of increasingly importance as it can offer students a m... more Teaching modern physics in high school is of increasingly importance as it can offer students a more realistic and updated vision of the world, and can provide an opportunity to understand the most recent scientific discoveries. In this context, general relativity (GR) occupies a prominent place, since it is related to astonishing scientific results, such as the first image of a black hole or the discovery of gravitational waves. In this paper we describe an educational proposal aimed at teaching GR in high schools in a fun and playful way using the so-called rubber sheet analogy. We present a set of instructions to build a simple and low-cost space-time simulator, and a series of related educational cards that guide the teacher in the implementation of the activities step by step. This work is the result of a long and productive debate among Italian high school teachers who have collaborated for many years with the Department of Mathematics and Physics of Roma Tre University in Rom...