Contribuições da pegada hídrica no ensino de ciências: percepções e perspectivas de mudança a partir da sala de aula

Abstract

The inclusion of discussions about water consumptions in Science classes highlights the need of contextualization and expansion of the theme, in particular the need to deal with the theme accor-ding to more updated approaches due to the current water crisis lived in Brazil and in many other places around the world so that more profound discussions are carried out in the educational context; examples of this are discussions that focus on water footprint. This investigation refers to a study which main research question was: how does the use of didactic-methodological strategies based on elements of water footprint contribute to students´ understanding of issues related to the use and water preservation considering the current crisis of this natural resource? This qualitative inves-tigation was carried out at a post-graduate level – Master´s degree – with the participation of 35 (thirty-five) 6th grade students at a Basic Education school in the Curitiba. The methodology involved participants and the use of multiple tools for data generation. In order to structure the teaching strategies, before the work in class, a survey was developed about issues related to water, especially students´ perception about the level of water consumption in various contexts (agriculture, industry and domestic). The survey supported the design of an investigative questionnaire about how students perceive, relate to and understand aspects related to water resources. In addition to the survey, tools that facilitate the generation of data such as: field diary (similar to memos), participants´ manuscripts and audio recordings were used. From this perspective, content analysis proposed by Laurence Bardin, seemed the appropriate approach for the data analysis, as this method represents a pre-analysis followed by the exploration of the material for later treatment of the data and, finally, the interpretation. The research results point out that participating students have shown reflective and open to discussions about the treaty content. Data analysis tells us that the propositions of educational-methodological strategies differentiated and contextualized, supported by elements stemming from the WF, the objective of accurate way in understanding issues related to use / destination and water conservation. Thus, we noted that the use of social environmental issues, can set an important tool to foster discussion and contribute to learning in science teaching, such as the current crisis of water resources in Brazil.