Metodologias ativas em projetos de ensino de botânica em uma escola de ensino integral

Abstract

Active methodologies have been used by teachers as didactic strategies to arouse interest and facilitate students’ understanding of botany, a subject often considered complex, with terms that are difficult to understand and outside the modern context. The question that guided the research was: How could the use of active methodologies contribute to teaching Botany in high school? Therefore, the present research had the general objective to verify if active methodologies could contribute to teaching botany. To reach this objective, the following specific objectives were defined: to characterize the active methodologies; to describe the activities carried out at a public school; to analyze the practices and experiences in the researched classes. This work had a qualitative approach of the experience report type, in which we sought to describe and reflect on the activities carried out in two high school classes at a state school in Maceió-AL. Didactic activities were carried out in teaching projects that were developed throughout students’ experience in two high school classes (1st grade “C “and 2nd grade “A”). To carry out all activities, each class was divided into three groups. The activities were divided into three stages: dialogued expository class and challenge–problem exposition; didactic workshops; and science fair. Data collection was carried out through observations during classes and through analysis of students’ experience. The results showed that working with botany teaching projects are didactic strategies that can arouse students’ interest in botany, especially in content considered more complex and difficult to understand by students. During the dialogued expository classes, students learned and discussed topics related to the importance of plants in everyday life. In the didactic workshops, students worked on physical, motor, cognitive, affective, and social aspects, contributing to teaching botany. In these activities, on average 90% of students were able to solve problems and develop skills such as cooperation and autonomy in a teaching process, seeking collective learning. Each group of students produced a didactic resource to explain a specific theme about plants that was important for encouraging creativity, discussing, and reinforcing the knowledge acquired in the classroom. During the science fair, they presented these works and developed autonomy and communication through exchange of information and knowledge with spectators. It is concluded that active methodologies can contribute significantly to making botany classes interesting for high school students.