Inserção de tópicos de física moderna e contemporânea no ensino de física: elaboração de uma unidade didática com foco em nanociências e nanotecnologia

Abstract

This thesis deals with the inclusion in Elementary Education of Modern and Contemporary Physics, more specifically, the production, characterization and application of nanoparticles, in the context of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (N&N). Special attention is given to the importance of “didactic transposition” which refers to the transformations undertaken by a body of knowledge from “scholarly knowledge”, which is produced in academia, to “taught knowledge”, which is actually taught at schools, in real classrooms. In this process, Interdisciplinarity should be pointed out as an important element, considering the diverse aspects of science, including physics, chemistry, biology, health, and humanities, that are involved in and are related to N&N. Thus, our research comprises four steps: 1. an investigation on how N&N themes are presented in journals related to Physics/Science Education; 2- the analysis of didactic books used in Brazilian secondary education, regarding N&N; 3- the design and production of N&N teaching material (an interactive e-book); 4- classroom application of the developed e-book, including the assessment of students’ opinions about the educational resource. In summary, we have developed an open educational resource to address the didactic transposition of N&N. In addition, the results obtained reveal that the e-book was efficient to arouse student’s interest towards N&N, and mobilized their engagement with the topic. The results also show that students understand the multidisciplinary nature of N&N, including its importance to technological development.