PhD of Bernat Faura on the incorporation of knowledge about matter and chemical elements in primary education

Bernat Faura, professor of the Degree in Industrial Design Engineering at Elisava, is studying from Elisava Research a PhD at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) on how to incorporate knowledge about materials and chemical elements through innovative methodologies among students in primary education and pre-university centers.

Supervised by Javier Peña, General Manager of Elisava, and José Luis Lapaz, professor at the UPC, the pilot plan of the project has been carried out at the Lurdes School in Barcelona, and has focused on the development of a pedagogical method to incorporate the periodic table and, in particular, the language of chemical elements in primary school.

One of the objectives, in the words of Javier Peña, is to place “the language of the chemical elements at the same level as the languages already learned at this educational stage, such as the language of numbers or the language of music”. In this sense, Javier Peña has previously addressed this subject in his book series Elementos.

One of the objectives of Bernat Faura’s doctorate, which contemplates the inclusion of these concepts in the corresponding pedagogical plan, is to demonstrate that learning the chemical elements leads to improvements in learning that can be applied in various fields and levels, enabling individuals to face challenges and situations related to climate change or pollution, energy, food or the functioning of the human body.