Objetos-modelo no ensino de astronomia e o processo da transposição didática

Abstract

An investigation on astronomy teaching using model-objects, modeling and didactic transposition was performed with 11 students of the last year of basic school. The activities were focused on the study of the following natural phenomena: a) the annual apparent movement of the Sun; b) the directions of sunrise throughout the year; and c) the length of the clear day in any place on Earth for any period of the year. Initially, the students were asked to respond several open questions with which it was possible to identify the students' preconceptions on these phenomena. We found, for example, a misconception on the wellestablished idea among students that the Sun “always” rises in the east and sets in the west. This concept seems widespread in all school levels. The ideas that the length of daylight throughout the year is the same for all regions of the Earth, the Sun reaches the zenith in Caxias do Sul - RS, and the seasons is a consequence of greater or lesser proximity of Earth to the Sun are other examples. After analysing the students conceptions, many of them wrong and at odds with scientific concepts, a didactic intervention was implemented to study the phenomena using learning environments enriched with model-objects which were used as teaching auxiliary tools. This teaching strategy allowed the students a recovery of conceptions, so that the ideas were further reviewed, explored and confronted. Finally, using semi-structured interviews, the students were invited to present their post-conception, after performing the activities of modeling, where they took the opportunity to demonstrate what has changed for them in terms of knowledge. The research showed us that learning environments enriched with model-objects for studying the a), b) and c) astronomical phenomena were, in general, valuable tools for the representation and understanding, improving the students' knowledge on some aspects of the reality of natural phenomena. Additionally, this study showed that model-objects didactics allowed the passage of knowledge taught to the wise, building the bridge between scientific knowledge and school knowledge.