A cura di Sasha Dell’Orto, 4AL
When my science teacher told us we would be doing a project on rocks I didn’t think much about it, they seemed uninteresting: “They’re everywhere” I thought to myself “and yet they don’t ever attract my attention, how could they possibly do so in a lab?” but after spending
just a few minutes with professor Zucali, a university professor of geology from the University of Milan who became our guide in this rocky world, everything seemed to change perspective. All of a sudden his enthusiasm for those pieces of earth seeped into me and I couldn’t have been more excited to spend the rest of my day delving deeper into the topic.
I learnt that rocks can carry within them opportunities for science and knowledge of Earth, and indeed our own, history. The first part of the experience was spent discussing what our student perspective on rocks was. My classmates’ sentiment seemed to justify my own, rocks aren’t something we think about in our day to day and everyone was intrigued to find out more. Steadily, and with the help of our teachers, we all came to appreciate the novelties of every single sample we had at our disposal. One had white dots all over, another was shiny, but only in certain spots, and another one again had a fossil on it. After examining them intensely through a lens and having observed them under different chemical reactions I began to notice things which before I overlooked: small details such as colour gradients or more reflective spots or even an odd texture all became starting points for interesting discussions with the professor or his assistants. The key was letting yourself get overcome by curiosity. In fact I think this was the most interesting aspect about the whole experience, at least for me, it wasn’t so much the rocks or what we did or didn’t do with them, but mostly how much there is to discover when we show interest towards even the most mundane things. I learned about something which was outside of my sphere of interest, not in a pedantic way as I had previously done in class, but rather in an intuitive manner. All of those things which previously bored me immensely when explained to me now suddenly appeared under a new light and my interest in them was renewed, not only because of our charming guide but also because holding something in your hand and experiencing it with your own eyes simply can’t be replaced by reading about it in a textbook.
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After having exhausted all of our questions and the professor having helped us understand what we were holding, we went on to the second phase of our rock and mineral exploration: digitalization. This was the most unique aspect of the whole experience, what it consisted of was taking numerous pictures of a rock which we particularly liked, at every frame changing slightly the point of view, and then using special software to convert our 2D images into 3D
objects. We took the pictures with our phone, but also with some specialized equipment brought by the professor such as a mini photographic set. Once finished it came the time to learn how to use Metashape, a photogrammetry software that allowed us to convert a set of images of an object into it’s model which can be employed for all sorts of projects. Having learned the basics of this application our time had expired. We planned a future virtual meeting to finish up the last steps required to transform what we were holding into a 3D mesh.
During the two meetings we organized we revised the minor issues we encountered on our own and by the end of our journey we ended up with some neat 3D objects that resemble accurately what we had in our hands. I think it was a nice addition to make us work with some newer methods; the project could have easily been just an observation of rocks, but by
working with computers in an environment not typically apt to the class I got to learn a new skill that I could apply not only to rocks but perhaps to anything I might want a digital scan of.
All in all, it was a very insightful experience, it helped me appreciate something which I undervalued and gave me the tools to continue exploring this subject. Working with my classmates in a more practical environment was something that we often don’t do, especially in the times of the pandemic, and I had a great deal of fun discussing and experimenting with them. I am happy the school organized this event and I surely hope there are more to come.