Avaliação da utilização de experimentos de microbiologia na aprendizagem e retenção do conhecimento de alunos do ensino médio

Abstract

Microbiology is a science that studies microscopic organisms and is directly related to our daily life deserving an important role on the disciplines of biology and science. The lack of resources, equipment, materials and maintenance of spaces for practical or experimental classes has made it difficult to learn about this theme in public schools. It is important that practical microbiology activities can be developed with simple and low cost materials considering the reality of the school and providing the effective teaching of microbiology. The present work aimed to evaluate the use of experiments (practical classes), of low cost, in the teaching of microbiology, as well as to evaluate the learning and retention of microbiological knowledge of high school students in the mode Youth and Adult Education - EJA. The study was conducted in a state public school located in the municipality of Ubá - MG. We used questionnaires (questionnaire 1: pre-practice, questionnaires 2 and 3: after practical classes), lecture and microbiological experiences (Hand hygiene, Bread decomposition, Homemade yogurt and Spoiling the Porridge) using alternative low cost materials without the use of a laboratory. Thirty students were included in the study, divided into 2 groups: experimental (with application of practical experiments) and control (no application of experiments). There was no statistically significant difference between the experimental and control groups in the three applied questionnaires, but it is noteworthy that in questionnaire 2 one question presented significant difference (p <0.001), showing that 93% of the students in the experimental group answered the question correctly: We can state that do microorganisms cause disease ?, compared with 13% accuracy in the control group, and also in the comparison between groups in questionnaire 3, a value of p = 0.097 was found showing that students in the experimental group tended to score higher (experimental group: 8.06 versus control group: 7.28). The results showed that low cost experiments enable the contextualization of the microbiological world, increase students' interest and can be applied in any school with few resources and problematic infrastructure conditions, working as an excellent pedagogical tool to teaching the microbiology content in biology class.