FermHAmente, the festival of science in Fermo, is one of the most innovative format in the field of the scientific education’s spread in Italy. It is recognized as an important appointment thanks to the quality of the programme, the originality of the organization and the enthusiastic participation of world-renowned lecturers.
The main purpose of the Festival is to make available for visitors in the buildings of the historic centre of Fermo, the only Italian city, together with Turin, recognized by Unesco as Learning city, completely free of charge, scientific proposals of very high quality, presented and explained by professionals of the sector in an informal, brilliant and accurate way.
The Festival is directed to schools, individual users, groups, students, families, science enthusiasts and, above all, the “entry level” profile, that is that segment from the mainstream television that exposes to the subject without a specific competence.
The Festival since its birth distinguished itself as an immersive event in the city of Fermo. Besides the audience, teachers and lecturers, protagonists of the event are the historical locations in Fermo, organized as laboratories or conferences to offer the public the opportunity to enjoy in an unusual way of the cultural heritage, in view of a reciprocal enhancement among scientific excellences or historical and artistic heritage.
FermHAmente: the house of Steam
In contrast to the belief that arts and sciences need to remain detached worlds, the use of artistic forms integrated with the study of mathematics and sciences tends to improve significantly the students’ aptitude towards scientific disciplines.
The use of form of art does not take anything from the scientific approach, rather it strengthens its value, reinforces its usefulness and allows the creation of a fruitful environment of interdisciplinary learning, because it supports the development of creativity and critical thinking, increasing the use of vocabulary and symbolic language, of neural plasticity, of visual and spatial abilities, of self-confidence, of persistence and social-relational skills.
STEAM is not only an acronym (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Mathematics) but it becomes a different way to “see” the world, to integrate a creative approach with technical skills.
The “arts integration” methodology on one side encourages the access to the human creative process through collaboration, team building and interpersonal work creating as a consequently a strong connection between the sentimental and cognitive domain of the student; on the other side, a bridge between what is palpable and what is abstract, allowing to acquire knowledge on the reality in a path that goes from an informal and highly participatory approach until coming to the necessary formalization of the results.
FermHAmente embraces this vision completely and it is a privileged member on the national territory of a European and international STEAM net.
