“Pepper’s Ghost”: como ensinar/aprender conceitos de física através de uma simples ilusão de óptica

Abstract

The use of an optical illusion present in 19th century theater tricks can be an excellent tool in the teaching of Physics. In this work, we aim to teach Physics content such as the laws of reflection, electric current, potential difference, resistance and resistivity. This is accomplished through the assembly and study of an optical illusion known as "Pepper’s Ghost" or "Monga, the Monkey Woman", through practical and contextualized classes, containing simple experiments, images and videos. When using this process, we wish to develop, according to Ausubel and Novak, the necessary subunits for the student to have a significant learning of the physical phenomena present in this apparatus. This whole proposal of activities is contained in two didactic notebooks: the teacher's notebook and the student's notebook. In this material we are aiming not only at learning Physics concepts, but also at the historical and cultural contextualization involving the emergence of the current holography. The two notebooks were applied to a second-year high school class at Colégio Agrícola Augusto Ribas, located in the city of Ponta Grossa - PR, in the months of September and October 2019. To assess students' learning, questionnaires and mind maps were produced. The qualitative analysis of this material was carried out using word clouds and similarity graphics generated by the IRAMUTEQ software.