Coronavírus SARS-CoV-2: o que ele tem para ensinar para as escolas?

Abstract

A new pandemic disease caused by a coronavirus, known as COVID-19 was officially announced by the World Health Organization (WHO) in February 2020. COVID-19 is caused by the virus SARS-CoV-2, which belongs to the Coronaviridae family and has representatives that were known to infect ani mals. Because of that, the world had to find a way to stop the spread, as it is highly contagious. In Brazil, one of the adopted measures was the social isolation, which included the school’s closure, changing the way teachers and students were used to have classes. But there are many subjects as genetics and cellular biology that are of difficult understanding. So, how to improve the teaching of these subjects in times of pandemic? Thus, this study aimed to show how biology teachers can improve the classes in a way that students can enjoy more and, consequently, learn better. It also aimed to show the situation of the education in Brazil. Some authors show that the learning process can be improved when the examples used during classes are contextualized to the student’s reality and experiences. Thus, it is possible to use the new coronavirus as example during classes to explain concepts as mutation, evolution, genetic code and how they are connected. Together with that it is possible, or even necessary, to use virtual tools, like YouTube or Google Expeditions to make the examples more real, as the students can see what a virus is and how it infects a cell, or how the virus replicates itself. When the student can see, the learning process becomes easier. Also, there are other tools to use for remote classes, especially during pandemic when the people are isolated at home. Although, classes can be easily improved when the students, teachers and schools have conditions to that. The education in Brazil lacks structure for many students and schools. Many of them do not have computers, others do not even have internet access. Therefore, that are many ways to make biology classes more interesting to students, improving their learning process. But the pandemic also showed to Brazil how evident is the inequality among social classes.