Motivational and didactic efficacy of an interdisciplinary learning path on IR Reflectography and False Colour imaging of artworks

We present an interdisciplinary didactic module at the high-school level about Infrared Reflectography and Infrared False Colour imaging of artworks jointly conducted by physicists with an art historian expert in heritage science. The teaching sequence includes use of do-ityourself materials as well as professional instrumentation. It is shown that this interdisciplinary and practical didactic path succeeds in fostering students’ (particularly female students') attitude towards learning physics and represents an effective way for introducing advanced topics in the field of radiation-matter interaction, while opening the way to untying some important conceptual knots related to colour image formation.