Contaminação do Rio Araguaia por agrotóxicos: o lúdico e os três momentos pedagógicos no ensino de Química

Abstract

Among some situations that teachers face in the classroom is the frequent difficulty in awakening students' interest in learning. In the traditional teaching model, students are merely passive recipients of theoretical concepts and reproducers of information. It is necessary to teach science in a contextualized manner that makes sense to the student; the content must be part of each individual's daily life. Thus, this work is a qualitative research study aimed at promoting the construction of scientific knowledge through the approach of the Three Pedagogical Moments, using the theme of contamination of the Araguaia River and the application of an educational game as a teaching strategy to foster collaborative learning in Organic Chemistry education. This study also aims to create and implement an educational game as a tool for collaborative learning. In the first pedagogical moment, the proposal was to present the theme of contamination of the Araguaia River by pesticides in an interactive and reflective way. The lesson was structured with the goal of raising students’ prior knowledge about the theme. In the second pedagogical moment of the research on contamination of the Araguaia River by pesticides, the focus was on deepening students’ knowledge about some Organic Chemistry concepts related to pesticides, analyzing their chemical structures and properties. Still in the second moment, the students were organized into six groups, and each group was randomly assigned the structure of a specific pesticide, with each group having to answer four questions about the assigned pesticide’s structure. In the third pedagogical moment, the TrilhaTox game was applied, with the participation of 32 students. The game takes place along a trail shaped like the Araguaia River, divided into six regions. Each of these regions represents a specific area along the river. The game occurred in three rounds, each with a specific number of participants. Each round was composed of 10 students forming 5 pairs. The pairs were distributed across the different regions of the river. The main category of analysis in this research consisted of the transcriptions of the students’ oral responses, collected through audio recordings made at three different moments. Analyses from the first moment showed that, in general, students demonstrated considerable interest, with superficial perceptions about pesticides but responses aligned with their applicability and functions in agriculture. The second moment allowed identification of different levels of understanding regarding Organic Chemistry concepts applied to the structural analysis of pesticides. In the third moment, the TrilhaTox game was applied. In the first round, students correctly answered 17 out of 20 challenges (85%) and requested 3 helps from the audience. In the second round, performance slightly decreased, with 14 correct answers (70%) and 4 helps requested. In the third and final round, the group faced 5 challenges, missing only one partially, without using any help. There was a notable high engagement and collaboration among the participants, as well as a gradual advancement in knowledge consolidation. The game promoted active and collaborative learning.