Eu como porque eu preciso comer: idéias e analogias de crianças do ensino fundamental sobre sistema digestório e nutrição

Abstract

This researcher aims at identifying and analysing digestive system, digestion and nutrition models hold by elementary school children. We also try to identify the comparisons they made and the kind of knowledge they use to operate them. Twenty four school children from 7 to 11 years old were interviewed twice. During the first interview, they were asked to talk about the way the food they eat go through their bodies. From the answer to this question, the interview went on to map the participants ideas about others interest topics. In the second interview, we opted to show the video of the first interview to the child and to questions them about his/her previous ideas. This contributed to validate the data previously gathered and to increase the reliability of our analysis. The interviews were recorded in audio and video and then transcribed. After the analysis of the transcripts we came out with categories to the models of digestive system, digestion and models. The participants comparisons were analysed by the characteristics chosen to relate the elements that compound each one. The majority of the models of digestive system presented by the participants were very simple, and the stomach was always present. The models of digestion and nutrition were the most difficult for them to express, perhaps due to the fact that they hold abstract ideas. We concluded that the majority of the students comparisons were made considering superficial attributes of the elements, and that the nonschool knowledge was more frequently used as the source domains.