O estudo da termodinâmica em sala de aula: uma perspectiva crítica a partir da história da ciência

Abstract

The inclusion of elements of the history of science, in thermodynamics classes in high school, can contribute to a more critical view of the construction process of scientific knowledge? To answer this research question it was conducted, at first, the creation of a study group, with two high school teachers, to allow the discussion of bibliographic references that would help to understand the relationship between science, technology and society, with emphasis on topics of entropy and fatigue in the history of science. In addition, the group could discuss the various possibilities to perform activities and classes on these topics. Thus, through these proceedings, it was possible to create materials and prepare lessons strategies for the implementation of activities involving the history of science for two second-year high school classes. The most relevant information collected with these lessons were recorded in a field diary which together with the homework submitted by the students, were analyzed, providing results favorable to the use of elements of the history of science. So, if the results of our research shows that isolated activities can contribute to a broader teacher education, they also demonstrate that ideally the application of elements of the history of science in physics classes has to be a continuous process. Isolated activities contribute to a broader teacher education, but it is not ideal. In addition, there are problems related to the general structure of educational institutions that end up depriving actions like the proposal here presented.