QuaderniCIRD 30 (2025)

The ancient Sumerian culture, and in particular their way of counting, was the starting point for developing a mathematical learning path which led to the realization of a workshop presented at the 13th edition of “La matematica dei ragazzi: scambi di esperienze tra coetanei”. The experience was conducted in a fourth grade elementary school class.

In computational linguistics and more specifically in linguistic phylogeny, mathematical distances play a basic role. We introduce a class of distances not dealt with in literature which verify the triangle inequality and which we shall call α-distances; we successfully apply them to the historical data of Žarko Muljačić on Romance languages, aiming to extend their use to the sintactical data of Giuseppe Longobardi pertaining to about one hundred languages of the Old World, data which are leading to results of extroardinary interest in linguistic phylogeny.

It can be said that teaching history today, especially in secondary schools, is complex, at least for two reasons: the lack of specific training for teachers, who rely too much on textbooks and traditional lectures, and, consequently, a teaching approach that is far from a hands-on, research-based model. This more active and engaging way of teaching history would bring Italian students closer to the subject, which is often considered distant and, at times, useless. To assess the state of history education, an online survey was sent to teachers from 18 secondary schools in the Udine area, and the data was subsequently analyzed: some results were surprising, such as the interest in historical events, while others were already known, such as the lack of professional development courses.

The Artificial Intelligence is revolutionizing workplace safety standards, making it an increasingly essential tool for improving hazard detection, predictive risk assessment, and continuous compliance monitoring with current regulations. Ergonomics examines the interactions between individuals, machines, and the work environment, developing human-centered interfaces designed to enhance workplace safety. When applied synergistically and holistically, these technologies can significantly reduce accidents and injuries across all types of work activities.

Baptizing or renaming places has always been a political act of great importance. It is currently evident that Trump’s second presidency is characterised by the use of a strongly volitional communication, which seeks to gain a hold on the collective imagination. It ranges from the restoration of Anglo-Saxon toponyms to changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico, up to the hope of extending the USA to the Panama Canal, Canada and Greenland. It is difficult to understand when we stop at toponymy and when we slip into geopolitics. Toponymy helps us understand the political legacy that President Trump draws from, both in foreign and domestic policy. The objectives, multiple, aim to profoundly and lastingly change the USA. However, everything suggests that the season of globalization entrusted to international institutions (United Nations, WHO, WTO, climate agreements, etc.) is now part of the past.

Statistics can be an important tool to present in class, not only as a certain number of formulas to learn and apply, but as a set of elements that lead to reasoning in front of a problem. In “Teaching Statistics in a Multidisciplinary Area - Part One”. I presented some basic elements of descriptive Statistics, highlighting some critical issues that can emerge from statistics done in a rushed manner or not contextualized and therefore incorrect. In this second part, I will present some topics related to Probability. Statistics must consider uncertainty, which is present in data collection, in the choice of a sample, and so on. The Calculus of Probabilities is a necessary step for those who want to do statistics, as well as for being able to read critically what we see in data processing. Topics presented in class and that may seem too theoretical or useless, take shape in a different way in the face of statistical analyses that ask to be able to get information from the data in order to be able to make decisions. In this second part I will present biomedical applications that are of interest not only to those in the field. In fact, I will talk about Probability applied to diagnostic tests and risk measures. These topics, arising from the possibility of working as a mathematician in a multidisciplinary field, can be presented in class even as for independent lessons, to give some practical examples. Sharing questions and designing experiments together to reach some objectives, is an important team game, where everyone brings their specific contribution to the personal growth and of the entire team. I think that this way of working together can also be an important lesson for school students.