Abordagem de conteúdos conceituais e procedimentais em física através de simulações computacionais baseadas em atividades investigativas

Abstract

Students at the first grade of High School are faced with systematic studies of Mechanics, in which it is necessary to describe the Movement and their causes. Because of that, the approach of concepts is closely related to algebraic analysis, in the form of conceptual contents, in an abstract construction but not always meaningful to the students. After technological evolution, especially with access to tools such as computers, tablets, smartphones, among others, it is possible to use interactive computational simulations within an educational methodology in a a controlled way of analyzing and describing physical events. These two processes involve procedures (analysis of variables, study of relations between variables, algebraic manipulations, among others) that, if accompanied by conceptual understanding, may contribute to justify and make it fun for students that events and physical quantities are modified through very specific actions performed by a subject. In this case, this work aimed to propose and verify the learning of conceptual and procedural contents in Physics mediated by computational simulations through an investigative proposal. In this way, it was proposed to use the Modellus software, which enables a virtual environment in which it is possible to simulate and compose physical models accessible to students. The software allows them to test different values in their hypotheses, to visualize graphical construction and data tabulation immediately, in order to make its relevance in the constructed model. To help the development of the activities, a class activities guide based on an investigative approach was elaborated and used in class. The organization and structure of the guide was intended to encourage students to make questions, to test their assumptions, discuss, and report the results. Three activities that addressed concepts of two-dimensional (Kinematic) motion, Universal Gravitation and Energy respectively were developed. As a general result, it can be stated that, based on the research proposal using the activity guide and the Modellus software, it was possible for students to relate the direct link between concept and procedural contents during the execution of the activities knowing that these tools have potential positive impact while teaching Physics by investigation.