Discovering the brain

mercoledì 30 gennaio 13

“Little less than a kilogram-and-a-halfof biological matter has generated,

and continues to generate,creativity, innovation and development.

We could even call it our majority shareholder,

but we still know very little about it”

Patrizio Paoletti


How does human being function?What makes human being truly unique? What role do mind and brain play in our lives?

“The Starry Sky within us” is part of an innovative campaign to raise awareness and promulgate science, with the final aim of helping the public to exploit the most recent discoveries in the field of neuroscience and to improve our educational and didactic approach. This initiative is being promoted by the Patrizio Paoletti Foundation, a National Research Organisation, recognised by the Ministry of Education , University and Research (MIUR).

The Patrizio Paoletti Foundation for Development and Communication is a non-profit organisation, committed for over a decade to scientific research, education and the promotion of social development .

Section IIntroduction - Description

Projects of Patrizio Paoletti Foundation (2000-2012)

Neuroscience Research InstituteAdvanced School of PedagogyPrimary or Infants’ SchoolsSchools throughout the WorldWonder: Teaching FestivalInfancy Platform21minutes – The Knowledge of Excellence (since 2008)

Institutional Partners

La Sapienza University of Rome Padua University of studies Bar-Ilan UniversityEurochildOpera Nazionale MontessoriBari Polyclinic


1.2 DESCRIPTION OF THE PROJECT PROPOSAL

“The Starry Sky within us” is a multimedial didactic course that illustrates the most recent discoveries in the field of neuroscience to a public of adults and children.

The project stems from the experience of our Foundation’s researchers in the scientific and didactic sectors and from the need to improve our knowledge of the organ that – more than any other – is the key to our success. Teaching experience takes place inside an installation that externally represents our brain and internally illustrates its functional integration, i.e. collaboration between the different areas of the brain that determine our daily conduct.

One didactics for all: the adoption of a straightforward and immediate language and the employment of sophisticated information technologies aim at explaining the wider public what we know about the functioning of this wonderful biological machine.

Sezione IIntroduction – Description

What is the origin of creativity?Where do the extraordinary intuitions of artists, philosophers, scientists and explorers come from?How is our brain organized?

These are just some of the questions that contemporary neuroscience helps us answer .Neuroscience today is capable of increasing our knowledge of that marvellous universe that is our mind.

The neuro-scientific sector of knowledge is now acquiring increasing autonomy, owing to its ability to i l lust rate human interact ion wi th h is environment, right from the childhood.


The Starry Sky within us offers our new generations a course that illustrates the various forms of intelligence, the sensory functions, and the three principal “brains of mankind”.This fascinating journey helps our knowledge of the human mind to broaden.

The Starry Sky within us is an installation to be staged in the squares of the major cities of Italy.Within these spaces, two operators animate a surprising experience in teaching.This installation makes it possible for you, together with your family or students, to experience an innovative method of learning through the senses, facilitated by the most advanced and original technologies in edutainment.

Leonardo. Galileo, Mozart, Einstein, some of the most brilliant minds in all mankind…How did their mind work? Where did their genius spring from?Come and discover and learn about the real protagonist of human history: our brain!



1.2 OBJECTIVES AND BENEFICIARIES

Experience a new teaching formula with interactive and trans-disciplinary aspects, promoting intuitions full of educational and pedagogical values and meanings. Learning through play is the fulcrum of the experience we propose.

The innovative nature of the project lies first and foremost in its capacity to provide elements that seek to answer some of the basic philosophical questions that have left their mark on Western thought…

How does human being function? What makes human being truly unique? What role do our brain and our mind play in our lives?


BeneficiariesFamilies, school, institutions,Infants and children over 12, adults and seniors.


1.3 THE METHOD

Our workshop has been conceived and implemented in order to involve children and adults, providing them with a variety of interdisciplinary knowledge aimed at increasing self-understanding and awareness of their cognitive, emotional and behavioural functions.

Touch screens, interactive workbenches and over 100 extracts from famous films tell us the story of our evolution, tracing a line of continuity between past and future, indicating what mankind has done, as well as what we shall be able to do if we know how to use all our still unexpressed potential.

Section IIntroduction – Description


2.1 OVERVIEW OF ORGANISATIONAL AND STRATEGIC SOLUTIONS

The project converts innovation and scientific research into value acquired, without overlooking an adequate communications strategy capable of giving competitive advantage, thus tracing a line that will most probably be followed by anyone wishing to replicate this type of project. Through this project, the most recent acquisitions in the field of neuroscience can be shared with the wider public, fostering ideal conditions to incentivize innovation.

The Foundation has also prepared a toolkit to identify interactions with users, aimed at establishing efficacious means of analyzing the results achieved critically and continuously. In the implementation of this project, the Foundation utilises its more than ten years of experience in planning, organizing and setting up teaching courses for the wider public. Starting from this basis, we may say that the Foundation has been able to manage the internal and external dynamics of the project successfully.

Section IIMethodology & Challenge addressed by the Project Proposal

Organisational aspects:

IdeationFeasibility study

PlanningSet-up

SecurityLogistics

Institutional relationsSupervision of content

Management of spacesEx-ante & ex-post communications

Monitoring and Assessment


Methodology & Challenge addressed by the Project Proposal

2.2. OVERVIEW OF ORGANISATIONAL AND STRATEGIC SOLUTIONS

The project utilises the best and most up-to-date perceptions and innovative technologies in communications, top-level design and the most recent scientific discoveries, presented by means of an integrated and trans-disciplinary approach. Since the course is self-explanatory, utilising multimedial systems and straightforward language, staff specialised in neuro-science is not required.

Among the installation’s key success factors is the effectiveness of the logistics organisation needed to transfer and assemble the structure. Workshop management can be run by a limited number of persons and its power requirements can be fully satisfied by a partnership agreement with the public authorities.

The project has already been tested at a public demonstration held at Assisi (November 2011) and every component of the installation’s logistics and production plan is provided with technical instructions, plans and safety certificates.The workshop comprises an inflatable structure, a non-slip platform, entrance portals, self-supporting internal structures, graphic panels, dividing walls, a central polycarbonate structure, multimedial interactive systems and a perimetral graphic walk-around.

Section II


2.3 OUR REFERENCE MARKET

The project’s market of reference is innovatory and free from domination, midway between communication, teaching experiments, sensory and museum courses. Being an itinerant workshop makes it more flexible and more capable of encounters with thousands of people, providing its visitors with knowledge and simultaneously guaranteeing visibility for its sponsors. In the contexts so far considered, our Foundation as promoter has made a careful analysis of the competition, but – owing to the highly innovative nature of its multimedial workshop – we have found no competitors on the market. Indeed, for the time being, no other organisation has developed similar strategies for distributing neuroscientific knowledge. For this reason, it is extremely probable that in time providing such a service will produce profits, generating a kind of self-sustaining system. The break-even point has been established at 10 months of continuous activity.


Such an activity has a potentially high medium- and long-term growth rate, as shown by the fact that so far the public and private bodies contacted have always been ready to authorise the installation, providing energy and sponsoring the initiative. As far as local context is concerned, workshop activities can be carried out in the downtown squares of Italy’s cities and towns, a position that guarantees considerable direct visibility for its sponsors.


Methodology & Challenge addressed by the Project Proposal

2.4 EXPECTED RESULTS & POSSIBLE UTILISATION

Among the expected results is that, first and foremost, of providing our new generations and their carers with a teaching course that illustrates - using a straightforward and direct language - the structural and functional complexity of our brain, its cognitive potentials, the various forms of intelligence and the central nature of our five senses in life’s progress.

Through the workshop, visitors acquire new knowledge about the physiology and functions of their own brain and relate such knowledge to their daily lives and the history of mankind’s evolution.

Section II

Expected project duration: 12 months

12 Italian cities20 days’ activity in each city8 hours’ activity per day80 visitors per hour153,000 persons directly involvedOverall visibility: about 2,000,000 people


3.3 RISORSE FINANZIARIE e SOSTENIBILITA’


The Foundation’s financial health is solid, with no decrease in growth trends, and no liabilities.

The 2011 Balance sheet was approved in 2011. The balance sheets are audited and published, with annexes including Notes on the Balance Sheet and Mission Reports.

Governance•Board of Directors•Board of Auditors•Chartered Accountants•Scientific Committee•Honorary Committee•Area Managers

The Foundation has drafted its own Code of Ethics and Organisation Model so as to define the ethical and social responsibilities of each person taking part in the organisation’s activities, and in particular its managers, cadres, employees, as well as suppliers and various categories of stakeholder.

Since the year 2000, the Foundation has been active with projects both in Italy and abroad, and has launched numerous fund-raising campaigns to sustain them.The Foundation’s regular subscribers number 11,597, 58% of whom are women and 42% men. Their average age is 43.

In Nielsen areas, their distribution is as follows:71% north-west Italy11% north-east Italy15% central Italy3% southern ItalyOur subscribers’ department, the fund-raising campaign and our design office are engaged on a daily basis in seeking the funds needed to implement the organisation’s projects.


3.4 NON FINANCIAL RESOURCES


Researchers & Contents The Foundation’s own researchers, specialists in didactics and communication, research and summarise the scientific content required for project implementation.

PlanningThe conception and implementation of such a complex installation require careful planning and coordination of the numerous persons involved. Strategies, goals, activities and schedules, as well as identifying the project’s sensitive areas and strengths are guaranteed by the Foundation’s staff.

Equipment

The purchase of equipment is decided on by the managers of the design and communication area after careful analysis of project sustainability. The inflatable structure and much of the technological equipment is purchased on the market. Product know-how and content are currently being processed with a view to a forthcoming publication.

DesignA project of awareness-raising and scientific divulgation of the related complex and apparently out-of-the-ordinary contents requires a communications and stylistic level capable of attracting the attention of the wider public. For this purpose, the Foundation utilises its in-house graphic and communications skills.

Partnerships

The Foundation has already entered formal partnerships or preparatory contacts with local authorities (municipalities), prior to implementing the project in the areas of those municipalities: Rome, Rimini, Fiumicino, Sassari, Catanzaro, Modena. Contacts are also underway with the cities of Taipei, Hong Kong and Singapore.

Face-to-face communicationSeveral communications activities are carried out partly by our network of volunteers, with a major annual summer-season face-to-face awareness-raising campaign, known as the Caravan of the Heart, providing widespread promotion of the project.


A PROJECT BYPATRIZIO PAOLETTI FOUNDATION

for Development and Communication

Contact:Marco Benini – Head of Development and Cooperation DepartmentFondazione Patrizio PaolettiVia Ruggero bacone 6, int. 100917 – Rome, ItalyTel.: +39 06 8082599Fax: +39 06 92912688Mobile: +39 331 7845531E-mail: [email protected]


mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

Discovering the brain

Documents

Transcript of Discovering the brain