Several actions carried out in public schools throughout the country through TIM Faz Ciência have caused changes that remain to this day. One of the initiatives most cited by teachers are the improvements at the school break, proposed in the Observe stage. However, some classes went beyond the activities of the teaching material and used the operations to carry out incredible projects with impacts inside and outside the classroom. In Fortaleza-CE, children formed a Science Club in the school that runs until today and, in Florianópolis-SC, they contributed to the creation of a municipal park.
Teacher Marília Ariela, from Fortaleza, was surprised by the amount of questions that arose in a 5th grade class in 2016 about the beginning of the Universe and the Big Bang theory – and that took time from the following classes. She had the idea of setting up a Science Club at Municipal School Quintino Cunha to offer a space where children could question, research and discuss topics related to science freely. Adherence is voluntary and had initially the participation of 12 students. The intellectual operations explored in TFC were the basis for the method used in the Science Club, especially Question.
It is the children who decide the topics to be discussed, starting from their doubts, under the coordination of Marília. The meetings are held once a week before classes, lasting two hours. “We use the operations to guide our conversations, and they are getting more and more interested in science,” says the teacher, who began researching various subjects in order to contribute to the students’ discussions. The Club is still active in 2017, gathering students from 4th and 5th grades. And since students who were in the 5th grade in 2016 still keep contact with Marília and ask to participate in the Club, she plans to organize out-of-school activities for everyone to perform together. Last year, the teacher presented the project at the TIM Faz Ciência Colloquium, held in Curitiba-PR.
In 2015, 5th grade students of Basic School Maria Tomázia Coelho, from Florianópolis, joined a campaign of residents of Santinho Beach to create a municipal park in the region of Jacaré Lake and Santinho Dunes (near school), which faced issues of garbage accumulated by visitors and constructions in unauthorized places. After reading ”The Story of Zé, Doroteia and the Trees,” one of the stories of the TFC teaching material, one student suggested that the class should do the same as the character Zé and observe the types of plants which are found in the region. The children identified some species, collected samples, searched for their scientific names and set up a spreadsheet with the information and photos of the plants, which was attached to the report delivered to the mayor of Florianópolis to request the creation of the park.
Teacher Ednéia Patrícia Dias also used the other intellectual operations to elaborate more activities and actions related to the campaign. The group organized an artistic installation in the Pedagogical Exhibit of the school that questioned about the future we want, looked for definitions of terms that were present in the bill created by the mayor, among other activities. The mobilization was successful: in December 2015, the bill was approved by the City Council. “It is the first experience that students had as agents of transformation. They participated from the very beginning and were very pleased to be part of this story, it is something that will make an impression in their lives,” says the teacher, one of the winners of the 2015 TIM Faz Ciência Award.
