Reflexão sobre a aplicabilidade de uma unidade didática acerca de alguns aspectos da natureza da matéria

Abstract

Studies on Physics Teaching (PT) are known to defend the Modern and Contemporary Physics approach (MCP), that is, the insertion of these topics is a current defended by many researchers in the PT area. This research was carried out based on such studies and aiming at proposing an alternative for the insertion of the theme ‘matter’. The research question was: How to approach MCP contents from a study on the scientific method and understanding of some aspects of the nature of matter? In an attempt to answer this question, an Education Product in the format of a teaching unit named ‘Something on the nature of things’ was devised and applied. The theories of Ausubel – meaningful learning and Vygotsky – knowledge mediation formed the theoretical background used to create the teaching unit. The topics addressed were: Scientific Methodology, Development of Atomic Models, Fusion in stars and Radioactive Decay. Differentiated activities with specific strategic guidance were proposed such as: Go for It: descriptive activity and multiple choice task; Doing Science: fun activity; Line of Ideas: synthesizing activity. The evaluation comprised cards with open questions and individual/pair tests. As a result, the students showed better performance in the descriptive activities presented in the cards, characterizing an acceptable level of learning. On the other hand, it revealed students’ difficulty with this theme, due to the characteristic abstraction required and for not being familiar with the theme. However, despite poor results, it is a proposal that should be part of the teachers’ curricular planning, so that the difficulties observed in the application of this Education Product can be overcome or minimized and it can be adapted to each specific school reality.