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

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 disci...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:INFORMS Transactions on Education 2023-01, Vol.23 (2), p.104-120
Main Authors: Colajanni, Gabriella, Gobbi, Alessandro, Picchi, Marinella, Raffaele, Alice, Taranto, Eugenia
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Algorithms
Authentic Learning
authentic problems
collaborative learning
Computer Science
Cooperative Learning
Distance Education
distance learning
Foreign Countries
Grade 10
group projects
High School Students
Mathematical Models
Operations Research
Problem Solving
STEM Education
teaching modeling
teaching optimization
teaching unit
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Summary: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. Funding: E. Taranto and G. Colajanni were partially supported by the research projects “Programma Ricerca di Ateneo UNICT 2020-22 linea 2,” “EEEP&DLaD,” and “OMNIA” of the University of Catania. Supplemental Material: The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/ited.2022.0271 .
ISSN:1532-0545
1532-0545
DOI:10.1287/ited.2022.0271