Problematizando o estudo da cosmologia para a Educação Básica: por que a noite é escura?

Abstract

In this work, we created a didactic sequence about cosmology and investigated its development with students of the first year of high school, of a school in the private network of the city of Lavras. The sequence is composed of eight activities, totaling eleven classes. The focus of the historical episodes studied was the question: Why is the sky, with infinite stars, not clear at night? Such a question is known as Olbers Paradox. In the context of the time of Olbers, it was believed that the universe and the number of stars were infinite, but what was observed is a dark night instead of being totally clear. For this paradox, over the centuries, several attempts at solutions have been made, some of which are quoted in the paper. The general objective of the research was to analyze how knowledge of these episodes in the history of cosmology can enable students to overcome certain naive or inadequate views of science that have been criticized by researchers of the History and Philosophy of Science (HFC) in Education. They contribute to closed visions of science, such as: scientists who are isolated geniuses who make use of a rigid and well-defined scientific method, plus a science that is unquestionable, an absolute truth. These visions are so called, because they distance the student from the way they construct and produce scientific knowledge. The episodes selected highlight the historical process of construction of theories, addressing how the question of the Olbers Paradox was investigated from the Renaissance to the twentieth century, when it was explained by the Big Bang theory, which is currently the most accepted to explain the emergence of universe. The structure of the activities was inspired by the problematization and dialogicity, which are central in the three pedagogical moments, a transposition of Paulo Freire's conception for school education. We seek to emphasize diverse teaching strategies, such as: use of videos, drawing of drawings, interpretation of texts and debates on related themes. By analyzing the data collected, it was possible to verify that the students were able to identify that in order to arrive at a theory, the process is long, full of errors and correct answers of many peop le, which implies that the human being always had successes and failures in the quest to understand nature and society. During this process many names are left aside, even if they have been relevant in the elaboration of a theory, arising in this way stereotypes that lead to believe in the unique genius of certain scientists. In addition, after the intervention it was possible to identify a disbelief related to the scientific method, a point that a priori all students associated with the development of Science. We believe that an approach with aspects of HFC has contributed to the formation of critical and integrated citizens with the world and the reality in which they live.