Sequência didática baseada na aprendizagem significativa para a abordagem sobre alimentos cotidianos que são utilizados pelo nosso metabolismo energético

Abstract

Teaching about energy metabolism in high school is often considered complex and difficult to understand, as it involves knowledge about biology and chemistry and uses terms that are not common in students' routine. This study aimed to apply a didactic sequence based on the potentially significant teaching unit, which is a type of active methodology, in which the student relates situations from their daily lives with energy metabolism. In this type of methodology, the student is part of the teaching-learning process, being the protagonist in their educational discoveries, and the teacher no longer has the main role in this process. This didactic sequence was applied to third-year students of the Youth and Adult Education program at the Pedro Ribeiro Cavalcante Filho State School in Governador Valadares, MG. The method used was applied in 8 stages, the first of which was the definition of the topic to be addressed. In the following stages, the didactic sequence was applied with experimental classes using a science and computer lab. In the last stage of the potentially significant teaching unit, it was evaluated in a comprehensive manner. With this didactic sequence, it was possible to verify that the understanding of the basic concepts related to energy metabolism was enhanced. The students were assessed individually and also collectively when the tasks were performed in groups. Qualitatively, the result was satisfactory, as the students participated in the entire sequence, questioning and giving their opinions on each discovery. In the quantitative assessment, the means and standard deviations of the scores for the initial and final conceptual maps were 38.78 ± 19.74 and 73.46 ± 23.94, respectively, with a p-value < 0.001. We can conclude that this didactic sequence contributed to improving the students' understanding of energy metabolism, however we observed that this type of didactic sequence required a large class availability for its application, being indicated to improve the learning of subjects considered complex by the students.