SOUSA, Matheus Yuri Costa de.
Abstract:
Paleontology is a Science that compreends the origin of the Earth and its residents from the remains or traces of ancient beings that stay preserved on the rocks over geological time. However, it’s clear that Paleontology is being approached in a shallow way, becoming an obstacle for the students’ teaching and learning. Given this context, this paper aimed to show that we can teach Paleontology in simple and playful ways to 9th graders students from elementary school II of the State Elementary School “André Vidal de Negreiros” of Cuité – PB. For these activities, four workshops were used to expose the theme: the first workshop was composed by a pre-questionnaire and a theoretical class, the second and the third workshops, where the tapering simulations of Amber/molding were performed, from resins, and the process of molding or printing from fossil plaster casts. On the fourth workshop, it was realized the exposition of the productions made by the students and of the real fossils from the paleontology laboratory of the Federal University of Campina Grande – UFCG. For the data collection were used two questionnaires containing discursive questions applied before or after the workshops, dialogued lecture, practical class with the replication of amber and plaster casts, and the exposure of fossils. The results obtained in this research proved that most students have a knowledge about Paleontology, but incipiently. The use of playful tools to introduce Paleontology made the class more dynamic and enjoyable, arousing students' interest in the subject favoring the construction of the students’ knowledge. Therefore, the use of alternative methods for teaching complex subjects such as paleontology proved to be important to promote contact between the student and science in a fun and practical way.
