O ensino de ciências por investigação como mecanismo de prevenção ao uso nocivo de substâncias

Abstract

The usage of harmful drugs is a common topic on the daily life of the average citizen, reckoned through newspapers or personal experience, as an example, the use of alcohol and cigarettes. The consequences to using harmful substances are many, such as organic and mental diseases, social problems, familiar and environmental, elevated costs to the Unified Health System, education and public security. Many models were proposed to dimmer its harm to society. In Minas Gerais, the main adopted models are the biomedical (education and health), governmental programs like Proerd (educational drug resistance program), and the state wide drug prevention week by Minas Gerais’ state government. Most projects that involve education in healthcare are focused on passive information exchange, through speeches or simpler activities that need little participation from the targeted public. On the other hand, this project used an active methodology, the teaching of science through investigation, focusing the scientific education and the prevention of the use of harmful substances, especially the cigarette, cocaine and marijuana, substances of wide consumption, and with great neuroadapting capabilities, The project used as a theorical reference the work of Pedaste and collaborators 2015, investigative cycles, and Carvalho’s levels of openness of an investigative activity (2016). Under that tenet, the students had to answer the following guiding question “Why the burning of certain drugs of abuse, are harmful to your health? Without the combustion would they stop being harmful?” The alumni answered the questions, proposed the usage of commonly known invertebrate animals, worms, ants, cockroaches and roly-polies. The also used in their experiments, cigarettes, sugar, coffee, dipyrone, and paracetamol. There were many suggestions as to how expose the animals to those substances, such as: diluted, pure and combusted. At another point the students presented through a seminar, the results found and exchanged information referring to the used practices. Assignments and quizzes were elaborated to asses student’s knowledge on the topic. After the application of the didactic sequence, it was possible to notice an improvement on the knowledge gathered by the students. Therefore, we could say the teaching of science through investigation is capable to form more critical citizens, be it towards science, society, technology or environment.