The method of the Laboratory "De Rerum Natura"

It is a UDA (Learning Unit) that uses a didactic laboratory methodology. The purpose of the Uda  is not only the learning of Latin language and literature but  even the development of the 8 competences enunciated by the European Commission and resumed in almost all national school systems through a workshop aimed at organizing the Erasmus + meeting in Bari on "Save Our resources "and specifically the" resources "nature and culture.

The lab, in the didactics of the "Volta" officially recognized School in Bari, is the core activity of the  School / Work and is therefore one of the fundamental teaching methodologies.

But why Lucretius and De Rerum?

Because it is one book of the Latin literature and because it illustrates Epicurean philosophical theory with its consequences on man's life and nature in general. And furthermore because, being a didactic poem it is in itself an "educational" one but above all because it is adapted to the needs of the project and can be used to a modern read-out. In fact it alludes to an "atomistic" theory,  to the evolutionism, to the criticism of religious extremism and superstition, to the  freedom of thought, and so many other modern scientific and humanistic acquisitions.

The laboratory has developed in several steps involving teachers of all disciplines:

1^st Identification of the themes of interest of the 6 books of which the poem is composed: it has involved different subjects Latin, Italian, philosophy,

2^nd looking for 6 significant lines in Latin, one by chapter.

3^rd Translation of the sentences in English

4^th Identifying possible connections to art, science, religion, history, philosophy, etc.

5^th looking for 2 images, photos or pictures of famous authors, of which the first linked to the lines of the poem and the second to the later epochs depending on the themes concerned

6^th Drawing / design of 6 posters one by chapter of the poem

Sometimes, some sentences have been added to explain the correlations

7^th Talk show consisted of 6 meetings between Lucretius and one the characters or the authors   of the drawing  that discuss each other, sometimes even in an ironically way (even irony is taught). 2 or 3 lines for each. In English.

The Students played  different roles so as to involve them in the conclusions