Galileu e o experimento da Torre de Pisa no ensino médio

Abstract

It is necessary students know the scientific questions of each time, so they may understand how science has developed over time. Galileo lived in a historical context that enabled him to be recognized as one of the great person who changed the history of science in general and physics in particular. Galileo’s physics, like physics in general, is a human construct, so it is subject to transformations of society grounded in the historical process. To represent this condition with the students, we used Galileo’s deeds about the fall of the bodies presented in Two New Sciences, which may be related to the legend of the Tower of Pisa experiment. The aims of this work were to provide students contact between Galilean and Aristotelian theories about the fall of bodies and to understand why Galileo may be called the first physicist in the modern sense. In addition to the original texts we used to refute the Tower of Pisa legend, we built a low-cost experimental apparatus for measuring falling bodies using the Arduino platform together with the HC-SR04 ultrasonic sensor to measure gravity acceleration. The educational product consisted of historical texts about the Tower of Pisa legend and the construction and operation of the experimental apparatus with Arduino board, plus a didactic proposal with five activities that it was worked with high school students. The students were able to raise hypotheses to analyze the problems involved in these activities and analyzed some socioeconomic and theoretical aspects inherent in the process of scientific development of Galileo's time. As a final result, we concluded that there is a good way for daily teaching practice with our students by bringing together learning theory, the history of science and practical activity.