Uma Proposta para Integrar os Estudos dos Modelos Atômicos e a Radioatividade a partir da História da Ciência

Abstract

The work presented here is related to the educational product built in a professional master's research. It is a teaching sequence, designed for students in the 1st grade of high school, which used the historical approach to avoid disconnecting contents, making them more attractive to students. In it we approach the themes Atomic Models and Radioactivity in a connected way from the History of Science. The choice of themes started from the reasoning that, when the student learns about the propositions of atomic models, that is, to study the atom, he needs to understand what happens to it, which leads to discussions about radioactivity. In addition, the BNCC, in the first specific competence of Natural Sciences, proposes a discussion on the interaction between matter and energy, which may include this topic. The History of Science is responsible, in this proposal, for contextualizing and connecting the themes in question, since the constructions related to the models of the atom were made using radioactivity. The teaching sequence is composed of 12 diversified classes that use activities such as: group discussion, slides, video, simulation and demonstration experiments. A common element of all classes was the use of small texts to present the historical context of the time in which the model of the atom to be studied was proposed. These texts were elaborated from historical works already present in the literature both on Atomic Models and on Radioactivity. Another important element to guide the construction of activities were the Chemistry textbooks. As this research was applied in a State School in the city of Uberaba, Minas Gerais, we also intend to share some of the results of this research. One of the results that we highlight is the perception of how the use of the History of Science contributed to obtain greater involvement and participation of the students and, consequently, resulted in a good performance in the learning of these contents.