The Pertini Institute of Afragola in the province of Naples continues to persevere in its MISSION, setting itself the goal of ensuring that its students achieve educational success, even more so during this difficult period in history.

For this reason, using part of the resources provided by the State to implement the « School Plan for Summer 2021 » and those of the Institute Fund, thanks to the passion and tenacity of its teachers, has given rise to a new project for the Professional Institute of Social and Health Care articulation dental technician. This project, called DENTAL-CAD and intended for classes III and IV, is aimed at developing the students’ digital skills as well as methodologies and laboratory activities. 

The project aims to promote the development of disciplinary skills but also, and above all, of relational skills, which have been particularly affected by the restrictive measures to which schools have had to adhere as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, by means of specific measures to be carried out entirely in the dental technician’s laboratory at the NS Institute, including the purchase of consumables and equipment suitable for carrying out these activities. Its aim is in fact to give students laboratory experiences that can strengthen and increase the skills they have already acquired and bridge the training gap related to distance learning.

The students work in small heterogeneous groups in cooperative-learning and tutoring mode through the realisation of reality tasks to be carried out by means of both digital and analogue practical exercises closely interconnected.

Laptops, scanner and 3D printer and the CAD software Meshmixer are used for digital activities. The project aims at the modelling of the upper posterior teeth and the design and wax modelling of an upper and lower skeletal structure.