An Operations Research–Based Teaching Unit for Grade 10: The ROAR Experience, Part I

Gabriella Colajanni (), Alessandro Gobbi (), Marinella Picchi (), Alice Raffaele () and Eugenia Taranto ()
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Gabriella Colajanni: Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, University of Catania, 95125 Catania, Italy
Alessandro Gobbi: Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, University of Brescia, 25123 Brescia, Italy
Marinella Picchi: Liceo Scientifico, IIS “G. Antonietti”, 25049 Iseo, Italy
Alice Raffaele: Department of Computer Science, University of Verona, 37134 Verona, Italy
Eugenia Taranto: Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, University of Catania, 95125 Catania, Italy

INFORMS Transactions on Education, 2023, vol. 23, issue 2, 104-120

Abstract: We introduce Ricerca Operativa Applicazioni Reali (ROAR; in English, Real Applications of Operations Research ), a three-year project for higher secondary schools. Its main aim is to improve students’ interest, motivation, and skills related to Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics disciplines by integrating mathematics and computer science through operations research. ROAR offers examples and problems closely connected with students’ everyday life or with the industrial reality, balancing mathematical modeling and algorithmics. The project is composed of three teaching units, addressed to grades 10, 11, and 12. The implementation of the first teaching unit took place in Spring 2021 at the scientific high school IIS Antonietti in Iseo (Brescia, Italy). In particular, in this paper, we provide a full description of this first teaching unit in terms of objectives, prerequisites, topics and methods, organization of the lectures, and digital technologies used. Moreover, we analyze the feedback received from students and teachers involved in the experimentation, and we discuss advantages and disadvantages related to distance learning that we had to adopt because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Keywords: collaborative learning; distance learning; group projects; teaching modeling; teaching optimization; teaching unit; authentic problems; grade 10 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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