Desenvolvimento de projetos sobre meio ambiente para o ensino-aprendizagem de conceitos físicos

Abstract

The environment is a complex issue that involves knowledge of several areas of science. Environmental problems are becoming increasingly important for peaple around de world, both in direct confrontation of pollution or disasters and through the media, when it releases the global warming or the hole in the ozone layer. The high school students establish contact with environmental issues, plus the prior knowledge they acquire at the fundamental level, so the environment which be use as context for the discussion of diverse subject matter of physics. From another point of view, discussion of environmental issues in the classroom meets the education of citizens aware of the world they live in, the relations men establish with nature, and so able an active participation seeking for emancipation. Taking advantage of these features of environment were developed projects involving teachers from the Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology of São Paulo campus Sertãozinho, of physics, chemistry, biology, portuguese and sociology, and students of classes 1 and 2 years High School integrated with the Technical Education in Chemistry and Industrial Automation. The topics discussed in the projects, a total of eight distributed between the years 2009 and 2010, were chosen by the group of students and teachers involved and the methodology used was action research, emphasizing the participation and active cooperation of all during the entire process, since the organization of the steps to the analysis of results. The work included research in bibliographical sources, writing papers, discussions in the classroom, build experiments, making banners, preparation of seminars and presentations at events type science fairs. The data for analysis were collected through several sources: the researcher's daily log, photographic records, questionnaires, interviews, school documents and work produced by students. The materials and student responses to questions on proposed assessments showed a good understanding of the physics concepts treated in projects and a greater engagement about school knowledge. Every group involved has recognized the role of social work, in the sense that a better understanding of environmental problems contributes to the training staff and enables a more conscious action in the community. During the development of research other aspects appeared: the eminently interdisciplinaity of environmental problemas as a teaching resource and the motivation of students to conduct research, make experiments and public presentation, characteristics that are necessary for the implementation of system projects. On the other hand, the activities showed the difficulties of teamwork, both among teachers and among students, what unfortunately is not restricted to this project or the educational system, but it is present in various moments of life in society. vi Despite the difficulties the objectives were achieved, thus demonstrating the contribution of the inclusion of environmental issues for the teaching-learning process, particularly in the physical component of the curriculum. However, there is much to research, about the themes that can be explored and how to use the environment as a truly interdisciplinary proposal.