An Ecomuseum Experience In The Castelli Romani Area for Didactic Purposes

Abstract

Among the different methodologies to educate people to the planet sustainability, the Ecomuseum is one of the most innovative and advanced. It offers the opportunity of using different didactic modules such as drama and museography in order to obtain the full involvement of the people to be educated. In the Ecomuseum, visitors are not just the observers but also interactors and in a wide perspective even the watchmen of the territory where they live. In Italy already exist eighty Ecomuseums, two already established in the Lazio Region. One of those, the one in the Agro-pontino area, is already operating at a large scale and in a European contest with great results. Following the same path, the Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia in Rome chose an area, the Albani Hills, to implement a pilot-project for the establishment of an Ecomuseum in one of the Lazio Region areas rich of natural landscapes and history. In collaboration with the Ente Parco dei Castelli Romani a program for Lyceum students was implemented during a year (2009-2010). The students of two classrooms of the Mancinelli and Falconi Institute in Velletri (III Classical Lyceum and III Socio-Pedagogical Lyceum ), aged 16, chose an itinerary in the volcanic-origin area around the Nemi Lake to be developed in three items: the Roman Ships Museum; The lake itself; and the Diana Nemorensis Temple’s ruins. The final goal was interpreting the territory with the help of scenic actions. It was a sort of opened-air theatre where history, legends and their historical figures - mainly Caligula and the Goddess Diana - described the area from the different points of view: geological, historical, naturalistic and even gastronomic. The project evaluation was assigned to a Socio-Pedagogical Lyceum, under the supervision of INGV Didactic Lab. Results are encouraging even if innovative way to gain students enthusiasm should be thought since only a small group of students participated actively to the project. For future experiences it is important to succeed in involving as many teachers as possible to have more hours at disposal to be dedicated also to the dramatization.