Um olhar sobre as concepções de ciência e ensino de ciências de alunos-concluintes de química

O objetivo deste trabalho foi o de investigar as concepções de Ciência e de Ensino de Ciências de alunos concluintes de Licenciatura Plena em Ciências com habilitação em Química, turma de concluintes do segundo semestre de 2004 na UFPA, contando com uma total de 12 sujeitos de pesquisa. Para a identificação das concepções de Ciência e de Ensino de Ciências, foi elaborado um questionário, previamente testado com 15 alunos concluintes do Curso de Licenciatura Plena em Biologia, objetivando a validação do instrumento de investigação e posterior reformulação. A versão final do questionário apresentou doze questões, cujas respostas possibilitaram a construção de quadros contendo as respostas dos sujeitos da pesquisa. A categorização das respostas foi feita a partir de uma aproximação ao pensamento epistemológico de Bacon, Comte e Popper. Esses autores e outros permitiram analisar as respostas dos sujeitos, e identificar concepções de ciência empírica-indutivista, positivista e racionalista crítica que revelaram as tendências de Ciência Experimental-indutiva, Ciência Tecnológica e Ciência processual e tendências de Ensino de Ciências como Transmissão-recepção, Conjunto de Atividades Manipuláveis e Ensino como construção.

Production of fungal lipases using wheat bran and soybean bran and incorporation of sugarcane bagasse as a co-substrate in solid-state fermentation

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Government procurement policy in developing countries: the case of Petrobras

The aim of this article is to discuss whether public procurement policy can promote innovation by firms located in developing countries. The literature on technological learning is used to create a typology for assessing the impact of public procurement in developing countries from the standpoint of innovation. Petrobras, a Brazilian state-owned enterprise, was chosen as a case study. Petrobras is a global leader in the field of deepwater oil production technology and so offers an interesting opportunity to investigate whether government procurement in developing countries is used to promote the capability of domestic firms to develop innovations. The article presents the findings of a field survey on P-51, a platform that was ordered by the Brazilian state-owned enterprise and began producing in 2009. The case study is based on information collected from interviews with managers of Petrobras, EPC contractors and some of the firms subcontracted to work on P-51.

A formação de professores e os desafios do ensino/aprendizagem em períodos de mudanças sociais

The objective of this paper is to present the relationship between higher education with other levels of education. In Brazil, some challenges were launched to fulfill improvement in teaching / learning covering a scientific development with the involvement of several bodies, among them the science and society. Therefore, according to the National Postgraduate-PNPG, the close relationship between science and society requires a scientific-cultural training that should start in higher education, teacher training, and that this knowledge can follow the company, traversing all levels of education prior to higher education. Thus, we analyze the formation of teachers as one of the pillars of our discussion, trying to understand that at different times, men have paid attention to the re/organization of society, to masters/teachers have the knowledge that enabled individuals to convey an apprenticeship favoring the theoretical reflection on practice. So, we have considered some classics, as Bonaventure of Bagnoregio, that dealt on the training of teachers (as) in different periods, expressing concern about the quality of teaching and documents dealing with the situation of education in Brazil

Comunicação pública, cidadania e internet: a popularização da ciência nos portais eletrônicos de governo

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Física no futebol: objeto de aprendizagem gamificado para o ensino de física em mídias digitais por meio do esporte a partir do edutretenimento

Pós-graduação em Televisão Digital: Informação e Conhecimento - FAAC

Educação, trabalho e exclusão social no mundo globalizado

This paper reflects on education, work and social issues in the globalized world, where the transformations technical / scientific / informational, articulate the context and intentions capitalists generated unemployment and social exclusion of millions of people in the name of competitiveness and streamlining production . Brazil, a country with vast territory, the diversity of strategic resources, large population and vast internal market, has the potential to achieve full autonomy socioeconomic during the twenty-first century. However, the achievement of autonomy depends on the socioeconomic development of a strategic project to education to train the new generations and to upgrade the skills of workers at work. The construction of a just society depends on acquisition of knowledge, skills and social skills and labor to keep up with rapid changes afforded by developments in science and technology of the third millennium and build a collective consciousness able to avoid degrading economic, environmental and social fundamental condition for all Brazilians are full citizens.

Analises da nanociência e nanotecnologia na perspectiva de ciência, tecnologia e sociedade cts

In this contribution, we discuss and analyze some aspects of nanoscience and nanotechnology, based on the approach kwon as Science, Technology and Society (STS), as well as the prospects of Philosophy of Technology. In this context, we specify the constitute the nanoscience and nanotechnology analytic research field. I is also reported its genesis and limits, emphasizing the impacts of nanotechnology in the development of the contemporary society, such as the possible benefits and problems associated to the use of nanotechnology, as well as environmental impacts, doubts and uncertainties that permeate this areas, in addition some ethical questions and public policies for the sector are analyzed.

Greening a Brazilian cotton seed processing company: from challenges to strategic opportunities

This paper aims to shed light on a current and important theme that has been gaining increasing importance for governments, society and companies: the greening of agricultural companies in developing countries. The research objective is to classify a Brazilian cotton seed processing company in the evolutionary stages of environmental management: reactive, preventive or proactive. Design/methodology/approach– A case study was conducted in a Brazilian cotton seed processing company.Findings– The main results are: the studied company is positioned in the preventive stage of environmental management; this company is investing in operational green practices; environmental management in this company is motivated by various factors aiming at an increased competitive advantage. Finally, it can be concluded that this company is looking for green opportunities towards the proactive environmental management stage.

Sensibilização da audição e educação sonora nos exercícios de limpeza de ouvidos: uma incursão na Educação Matemática

The teaching of acoustics has been characterized by a banking model that little contributes to the ideal training of citizens capable of understanding and acting to improve their environment soundscapes. Equally distant from the world of sound and musical culture, audio technology and acoustic environment, it is disconnected from the ever-increasing effort to raise awareness on hearing and sound education, as defended by the Canadian educator Prof. Raymond Murray Schafer. In order to provide elements for reflection on how Mathematics can be itself a language to compete in a sound education, we developed, in a dialogical and problematizing method applied to the technological and cultural world, one further research and teaching with Math students of UNEMAT in Barra do Bugres. This study pointed to the feasibility of educating consciences capable of of improving their acoustic environment, modifying the landscapes where we live, under our responsibility.

Cutting Cursive: Is Handwriting Still Important to Today’s Preservice Teacher?

Handwriting is a tool for communication often untaught that has effects on learning and long-term development for students of the future. Handwriting used to be needed in order to function in society, however, today that skill is no longer needed. New technology, current teaching methods and societal needs have caused handwriting to be overlooked in many school districts. Classrooms are overwhelmed with information and many schools are simply running out of time to teach cursive, therefore no longer making it a priority. Handwriting is a perceptual motor skill requiring higher cognitive thinking, something that most primary school children find difficult, yet it is still needed in the school curriculum and provides a stable foundation for students of the future. The questions to be addressed by my research are to examine the factors that have led to the demise of cursive writing in elementary schools. I will research the complex issues that have contributed to the decline of cursive handwriting. This will include my investigation into the factors that technology has played, along with societal needs. I will interview preservice teachers, those students in college preparing to become teachers, and try to understand where the importance for teaching handwriting started and ended. By the end of my research I want to have constructed a timeline of events to explain the demise of this needed skill. My methodology for this research will be to gather information from various primary and secondary literature review sources. I want to understand when cursive started to disappear from the curriculum and why.

Tree height integrated into pantropical forest biomass estimates

Aboveground tropical tree biomass and carbon storage estimates commonly ignore tree height (H). We estimate the effect of incorporating H on tropics-wide forest biomass estimates in 327 plots across four continents using 42 656 H and diameter measurements and harvested trees from 20 sites to answer the following questions: 1. What is the best H-model form and geographic unit to include in biomass models to minimise site-level uncertainty in estimates of destructive biomass? 2. To what extent does including H estimates derived in (1) reduce uncertainty in biomass estimates across all 327 plots? 3. What effect does accounting for H have on plot- and continental-scale forest biomass estimates? The mean relative error in biomass estimates of destructively harvested trees when including H (mean 0.06), was half that when excluding H (mean 0.13). Power- and Weibull-H models provided the greatest reduction in uncertainty, with regional Weibull-H models preferred because they reduce uncertainty in smaller-diameter classes (< 40 cm D) that store about one-third of biomass per hectare in most forests. Propagating the relationships from destructively harvested tree biomass to each of the 327 plots from across the tropics shows that including H reduces errors from 41.8 Mg ha(-1) (range 6.6 to 112.4) to 8.0 Mg ha(-1) (-2.5 to 23.0).

Role of common mental and physical disorders in partial disability around the world

Background Mental and physical disorders are associated with total disability, but their effects on days with partial disability (i.e. the ability to perform some, but not full-role, functioning in daily life) are not well understood. Aims To estimate individual (i.e. the consequences for an individual with a disorder) and societal effects (i.e. the avoidable partial disability in the society due to disorders) of mental and physical disorders on days with partial disability around the world. Method Respondents from 26 nationally representative samples (n=61 259, age 18+) were interviewed regarding mental and physical disorders, and day-to-day functioning. The Composite International Diagnostic Interview, version 3.0 (CIDI 3.0) was used to assess mental disorders; partial disability (expressed in full day equivalents) was assessed with the World Health Organization Disability Assessment Schedule in the CIDI 3.0. Results Respondents with disorders reported about 1.58 additional disability days per month compared with respondents without disorders. At the individual level, mental disorders (especially post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and bipolar disorder) yielded a higher number of days with disability than physical disorders. At the societal level, the population attributable risk proportion due to physical and mental disorders was 49% and 15% respectively. Conclusions Mental and physical disorders have a considerable impact on partial disability, at both the individual and at the societal level. Physical disorders yielded higher effects on partial disability than mental disorders.

On the pathogenesis of Plasmodium vivax malaria: Perspectives from the Brazilian field

Life-threatening Plasmodium vivax malaria cases, while uncommon, have been reported since the early 20th century. Unfortunately, the pathogenesis of these severe vivax malaria cases is still poorly understood. In Brazil, the proportion of vivax malaria cases has been steadily increasing, as have the number of cases presenting serious clinical complications. The most frequent syndromes associated with severe vivax malaria in Brazil are severe anaemia and acute respiratory distress. Additionally, P. vivax infection may also result in complications associated with pregnancy. Here, we review the latest findings on severe vivax malaria in Brazil. We also discuss how the development of targeted field research infrastructure in Brazil is providing clinical and ex vivo experimental data that benefits local and international efforts to understand the pathogenesis of P. vivax. (C) 2012 Australian Society for Parasitology Inc. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

INVESTIGATING THE PRESENCE OF THE HISTORY OF SCIENCE IN UNIVERSITY GENERAL CHEMISTRY TEXTBOOKS

INVESTIGATING THE PRESENCE OF THE HISTORY OF SCIENCE IN UNIVERSITY GENERAL CHEMISTRY TEXTBOOKS. This paper aims at analyzing the history of science content of three general chemistry textbooks used in Brazilian universities: the translations of Kotz and Treichel's Chemistry & Chemical Reactivity, Atkins and Jones's Chemical Principles, and Garritz and Chamizo's Quimica. Results revealed different trends for the inclusion of history of science in chemistry teaching. Katz & Treichel and Atkins & Jones used history mainly as curiosity and ornament. Garritz & Chamizo adopted the historical approach as one of the organizing axis of their textbook. Nevertheless, the historical content of the three textbooks may be criticized from current historiographical standpoint.