Practical laboratory of nature teaching (PLANT): o uso de materiais de baixo custo para o ensino de botânica

Abstract

Currently, there is a clear lack of interest among high school students in the contents of Botany. Being aware of this situation, in a way unfavorable to the study of plants, we propose to develop a set of activities (practical investigative classes), with low-cost materials to facilitate the teaching and learning process in this area of knowledge, building in the students a new look at plants. The methodology used in the present work was action research. In the first stage, questionnaires were applied in two of the five 2nd grade classrooms at a state high school, aiming to diagnose the level of knowledge. Then, the Kit (PLANT) was used with the students, in one of the selected classes, maintaining the other class that did the diagnostic questionnaire without receiving the application of the PLANT, serving this as the control group of the research. Soon after, an evaluative instrument (questionnaire with twenty objective questions) was applied both in the group that used the Kit and in the control group. Subsequently, the results were tabulated, compared and discussed. After analyzing the data, it can be seen that the class that received the application of PLANT performed better in fourteen of the twenty questions proposed. The grades obtained by each student in the test applied after the KIT was performed were compared in both groups (experimental and control). The control group had an average of correct answers of 7.84 while the experimental group had an average of 9.84. With these results it can be seen that the group that received application of KIT-PLANT presented a better performance; which leads us to believe that the activities facilitated and stimulated the search for knowledge, subsidized the understanding of the concepts, thus contributing to a meaningful learning.