Criar o próprio jogo didático ou apenas jogar? Efeitos de diferentes estratégias de ensino na motivação e aprendizado de ciências

The use of games as educational tools is common, however the effectiveness of games with educational purposes is still poorly known. In this study we evaluated three different low-cost teaching strategies make and play your own board game, just play an educational science game and make a poster to be exposed in the school regarding: (1) science learning; (2) use of deep learning strategies (DLS); and (3) intrinsic motivation. We tested the hypothesis that, in these three parameters evaluated, scores would be higher in the group that made and play their own game, followed respectively by the group that just played a game and the group that made a poster. The research involved 214 fifth-grade students from six elementary schools in Natal/RN. A group of students made and played their own science board game (N = 68), a second group played a science game (N = 75), and a third group made a poster to be exposed at school (N = 71). Our hypothesis was partly empirically supported, since there was no significant difference in science learning and in the use of DLS between the group that made their own game and the group that just played the game; however, both groups had significantly higher scores in science learning and in use of DLS than the group that made the poster. There was no significant difference in the scores of intrinsic motivation among the three experimental groups. Our results indicate that activities related to non-digital games can provide a favorable context for learning in the school environment. We conclude that the use of games for educational purposes (both making a game and just playing a game) is an efficient and viable alternative to teach science in Brazilian public school

Pistas orgânicas: uma atividade lúdica para o ensino das funções orgânicas

Educational games can work as a complementary tool in teaching and learning chemistry, playing an important role in the development of the students cognitive structures, familiarizing them with certain conceptual content, which may arouse interest in the study of such content. In this work, we made an analysis of organic chemistry textbooks recommended by Programa Nacional do Livro Didático 2012, for high school students in order to verify the existence of methodological proposals using educational games. From this analysis, we proposed an educational game to be developed for students on 3º year of high medium and undergraduate chemistry, that are in 1º semester of the course, which is constituted of a tray and 48 letters, which work various concepts concerning organic functions, such as: structural characteristics, physical properties, chemical and properties diverse of the compounds used for the confection of the letters. The game was applied to a class degree in chemistry, period 2012.1 to a Federal Education of Rio Grande do Norte and a group of students of the 3rd year of the state schools of Rio Grande do Norte, in the period the months of April and May 2012. The analysis of the performance of the game proposed was made using visual observations, photographic records and testimonials of students who participated in the games. The instrument used for the data collection was the student questionnaire, which was similar for both groups, differing only in the amount of questions, because one of them had one more question. During application of the game it was observed that it constitutes a dynamic strategy in the teaching and learning of chemistry concepts, given that students actively participated in the classes as well, demonstrated more motivation in the construction of concepts, furthermore, it was possible to observe evidence of other possibilities of the game. This could be verified through visual observations and testimonials at the end of each game, by reading the answers to the questionnaires

Aprendizado significativo aplicado ao ensino de algoritmos

The course of Algorithms and Programming reveals as real obstacle for many students during the computer courses. The students not familiar with new ways of thinking required by the courses as well as not having certain skills required for this, encounter difficulties that sometimes result in the repetition and dropout. Faced with this problem, that survey on the problems experienced by students was conducted as a way to understand the problem and to guide solutions in trying to solve or assuage the difficulties experienced by students. In this paper a methodology to be applied in a classroom based on the concepts of Meaningful Learning of David Ausubel was described. In addition to this theory, a tool developed at UFRN, named Takkou, was used with the intent to better motivate students in algorithms classes and to exercise logical reasoning. Finally a comparative evaluation of the suggested methodology and traditional methodology was carried out, and results were discussed

Proposta de jogo químico como estratégia didática no ensino a distância abordando o conteúdo de estereoquímica

The educational games can act as a complementary tool in the teaching and learning as play an important role in the interaction of the student with knowledge, and encourage interrelationship between students and motivate them by the pursuit of knowledge. This research is intended to analyze the evidence of the students of distance education applied to semesters 2011.2 and 2012.2 for the purpose of to catalog the mistakes presented by the students, the contents of stereochemistry that attended the Chemistry of Life discipline. From the presented mistekes, develop an educational game, "walking the stereochemistry", addressing that content. The choice of stereochemistry content was due to the low number of found work in the literature, and for being one of organic chemistry content that generates learning difficulties, as it requires a mental visualization and manipulation of molecular structures, besides require observation and comparison ability by the students. The game was applied of Life Chemistry discipline of Nova Cruz Polo in semester 2013.2, with intention to verify the viability and applicability this tool for the development of motivation ability by the pursuit of knowledge by the students, as well as complement the didactical materials of the DE. Then, It was made available on the course page an opinion questionnaire to the participants of the game, as a way of to investigate the opinion their about the proposed strategy. To diagnose the contributions of the game on student learning, it was taken a comparative analysis of stereochemistry issues contained in didactic tests applied in 2013.2 semester students participating and not participating of the polo of Nova Cruz and was also compared with the tests applied at the poles of Extremoz, Currais Novos, Lajes and Caico. So the game can be considered an important resource to complement the teaching materials of distance education, because awoke the motivation for the search of knowledge and contributes to the learning of stereochemistry content.