Alimentação, digestão e nutrição: problematização e contextualização para uma aprendizagem investigativa

Abstract

This work proposes a scientific teaching about food, digestion and nutrition. Students were invited to the critical reading of texts from various sources, containing correct or incorrect information about food properties. Once established a functional property of food, students elaborated arguments against or in favor of that information brought in the text, treating it as hypothesis. Then, after expository classes, there was an integrative activity of the physiological systems, in which the students should understand that healthy eating influences the practice of physical activities. The didactic sequence was evaluated by comparing tests scores obtained before and after the activities in the classroom and analyzing the students' responses in groups activities. The results showed that most students did not learn the content previously taught and that, after the application of the didactic sequence, they answer adequately to the questions. In addition, the students selected as more credible sources of information the texts of scientific dissemination, and as preferred activities time those in which they are protagonists of their learning processes. However, in the first group activity, most students just copied excerpts from the report provided, showing difficulties in producing written texts, while others used the data provided to construct their own text. In the second activity, students had difficulty to integrate the digestive system with the practice of physical activities, since they cited the respiratory, circulatory and nervous systems. These activities were dynamic, and always the students asked for the teacher's assistance and demonstrated engagement at work.