Ensino de mutações gênicas e herança de genética clássica a partir de atividades investigativas baseadas em um modelo animal: Drosophila Melanogaster

Abstract

Throughout the history of Brazilian education, science was determined by an academic and international ideology, according to which methodology and scientific production should be restricted to the academic environment. Furthermore, this ideology determined the way of building science and this model suffered from political instability and authoritarian measures. The biology teaching method in school institutions was for a long time characterized by presenting large amounts of terminologies and extensive descriptions of structures and biological processes. Based on this observation, this project was developed at the Simôa Gomes school, located in Garanhuns-PE, with the general objective of carrying out studies based on scientific investigation using a model organism, the Drosophila melanogaster species, aiming at significant learning to understand how gene mutations and inheritance of classical genetics produce phenotypic characteristics. The hypothesis of this project is that the use of scientific research using an animal specimen: Drosophila melanogaster, will make it possible to build dynamic and meaningful teaching and learning processes about gene mutations and classical genetic inheritance, representing an improvement in teaching practices in high school. The interest in scientific research using an animal model arose due to the need to use effective teaching processes in order to promote meaningful learning and the potential of such a model as an object of study to be investigated, from which many biological processes can be understood. Regarding the results, when observing the students' answers in the activities during the development of the didactic sequence, it was noted that more than 70% of the students got the correct answers to the proposed activities, thus, it was possible to see that there was understanding in relation to how the characteristics are transmitted over generations, that is, how the genetic mutations of chromosomes II and III of D. melanogaster segregate independently during the formation of gametes in the Parental Generation and produce phenotypic characteristics that combine in different ways in individuals of the F1 Generation compared to the phenotypic characteristics of the Parental Generation that gave rise to them. Investigative teaching has the potential to promote deepening scientific knowledge on various topics in biology and provide support for reflecting, discussing and replanning teaching practice in institutions intended for this purpose.