Introduction of an Inquiry Based Teaching approach for nuclear physics education in high schools: a case study

An educational experiment on nuclear physics topics developed in fourth and fifth grades of an Italian scientific high school is presented. The ten-hour nuclear physics (NP) program was carried out following an innovative energy (IE) related path in two groups of penultimate year classes formed by students selected on a voluntary basis. The first group followed a traditional teaching approach while the second followed an IE approach. The teaching and satisfaction results and limitations of the experiment are discussed. The results of the experimentation were later used to redesign and propose a similar course to a fifth grade class.