Picture: Professor Ariane and Master Degree’s student Rafaella during the presentation of the article at LASERA 2017.
The TIM Faz Ciência material was part of an academic article prepared by a professor and two students of the Federal University of Grande Dourados (UFGD), in Mato Grosso do Sul. The article was presented between October 24th and 27th at the III Conference of the Latin American Association for Research in Science Education (LASERA 2017), held in Mexico. In addition, professor Ariane Baffa is using this material in subjects that she teaches at the Bachelor Degree course in Physics at UFGD.
The initiative to present the TFC material in classes began in 2016, when Ariane began teaching the subject Science and Daily Life for the first semester students. “As they were students that just got out of High School, I searched the internet for interactive, attractive materials and also with correct information about the construction of scientific knowledge,” she says. While browsing the site and TFC materials, the professor decided to include activities involving the material in her teaching program.
Ariane presented the material to her students and they were divided into seven groups: each one analyzed the book of an intellectual operation and presented it to the other colleagues. From then on, operations began to be worked through other contents, and the students themselves began to relate them to the subjects of the classes.
The fact that the material was aimed at children was not a problem for the undergraduates, who were very interested in the content. According to Ariane, the material contributed to her classes and to the learning of the students themselves, since it was an attractive way to approach concepts of the construction of science and initiate them in the area and it is also a reference to them, as future teachers, to plan their own classes. “If I had just shown a video or indicated an article, it would not have had such a good result,” she says.
This year, the professor also presented the material in the subject Practices of Physics I, and a couple of students used the content to elaborate a didactic sequence for the 4th grade of Elementary School.
Ariane was very pleased with the work and, together with Nathalie Rodrigues (one of the students responsible for the didactic sequence) and her master’s advisee Rafaella Matozo, she prepared an article on the teaching sequence, presented at the LASERA 2017 event. “I was able to see that all the people I talked to about the work also live this reality in their country: science is seen as a laboratory thing and scientists are represented by the male figure and as maniacs. TIM Faz Ciência helps to show students what science really is about and how it is done, in a didactic and fun way,” says Rafaella, who presented the article in Mexico together with Ariane. The professor also intends to publish it in a scientific journal and will continue to use the TFC material in her science subjects.
