Building scientific models from artistic materials and work of art in a rural graduation classes

Abstract

Scientific models are constructions that integrate science teaching activity and constitute the focus of discussions in primary and higher education classrooms. Thus, the construction of a model and its evaluation are activities that promote a contact between the students and the sciences. For the formation of science teachers, the contact with the modeling process becomes relevant to understand of their educational duty. This paper presents an experience report on the construction of models in a discipline of the Field Education Degree course at the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Brazil. Scientific discussions, as well as modeling activities, approached the arts through the use of some materials and openness to expressiveness. Starting of the class discussions, the students, besides being involved with the modeling process, also argued about the nature of this process, involving the evaluation and testing of the model built. One of these models elaborated by the undergraduates had the scope to explain the molecular kinetic theory of gases, corroborating other reports about the sciences. The elaboration of models contributed as much to the contact of the students with scientific practices as to the expression of their ideas through the approach to the artistic activities.