What is "particle" or "space" a metaphor for? Students facing the complexity of modern physics

The paper discusses some basic choices made in an “educational re-construction” of modern physics (relativity and quantum physics) aimed at re-shaping the current debates on Foundations, Philosophy and History of Physics into intelligible and practicable routes along which secondary school students can be guided to face the following questions: What are space and time in the current research in physics? How does the concept of “object” change from classical to modern physics content knowledge? In particular it is discussed to what extent guiding students to recognise the metaphorical meaning of wide-spread images of space and microscopic object s implies to face the complexity of physics thinking. Accepting complexity as a matter of fact led us to find out criteria for designing teaching paths in which complexity was not removed but re-organized so as to become manageable by the students. The preliminary results of classroom implementations, carried out with 18-19 years old students, represent the basis for outlining a “profile of complexity”, which combines the complexity of physics and its intelligibility