Mauricio Roberto Motta Pinto da Luz

Discovering the Cell: An Educational Game about Cell and Molecular Biology.

The role of games within education becomes clearer as students become more active and are able to take decisions, solve problems and react to the results of those decisions. The educational board game Discovering the Cell (Célula Adentro), is based on problem-solving learning. This investigative game attempts to stimulate reasoning and interactivity in the classroom as it challenges students to collect, discuss and interpret clues in order to decipher a scientific question (Case). Here, we describe the conception, development and evaluation of Discovering the Cell. The game was tested with students from public and private high schools in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. A questionnaire-based analysis demonstrated how students had adopted this strategy. The majority, from both public and private schools, were able to solve a Case, as well as apply the learned content when answering a related question. Taken together, our results indicate the suitability of the game as an alternative strategy to help teach complex cell and molecular biology themes to secondary-level students.

Iniciação científica na graduação: o que diz o estudante de medicina?

Medical education is an important issue throughout the world, raising even more interest in the era of globalization. In Brazil, the discussions around medical education increased dramatically during the construction of the Unified Health System and got even more intensive after the establishment of the National Curricular Guidelines. However, very little is known about possible relations and mutual influences between medical education and scientific research. In the 2007 edition of the National Examination of Student Performance - ENADE 2007, 30.7% of the students from medical schools had not participated in Scientific Initiation activities (a program of research activities for undergraduate students) during their courses, 31% had no opinion, 39% of them had participated in such activities and 12% had done so informally. For 10.9% of the students there were no Scientific Initiation activities available and 6.5% reported the existence of such activities however on an extra-curricular basis. It is noteworthy that in 2003 only 20.9% of the students reported that joining these research activities was important for their medical education while 30.7% of them reported not participating in research activities In the present study we investigated the availability of Scientific Initiation activities in the courses of sixth year medical students from six medical schools in four Brazilian States. Special attention was paid to the reasons for enrolling or not in the program. Even with an increased participation of students in the program we identified a great number of reasons why students did not participate although 84% of them consider that participation in the program should be mandatory for medical students in general.

Glucose as the sole metabolic fuel: a study on the possible influence of teachers' knowledge on the establishment of a misconception among Brazilian high school students

In the present work, I investigated the origin of the misconception that glucose is the sole metabolic fuel previously described among Brazilian high school students. The results of a multiple-choice test composed of 24 questions about a broad range of biology subjects were analyzed. The test was part of a contest and was answered by a sample composed of undergraduate students as well as biologists and practicing biology teachers. The majority of the responders had difficulties in recognizing the existence of gluconeogenesis and the possibility of ATP production using other fuels other than carbohydrates. Biology teachers and biologists seemed to either lack the knowledge or present the misconception regarding energy-yielding metabolism found among students. I argue that in both cases, biology teachers are likely to teach metabolism-related subjects in a manner that may contribute to the appearance of the misconception among high school students.

Construção de espaços de escuta, diagnóstico e análise coletiva de problemas de saúde pública com a linguagem teatral: o caso das oficinas de jogos teatrais sobre a dengue

As caracteristicas historicas, sociais e ecologicas da dengue tem motivado acoes de educacao em saude visando medidas preventivas. Acoes educativas e comunitarias que partam do contexto da populacao envolvida tem sido apontadas como cruciais. No presente estudo, investigou-se a utilizacao da linguagem teatral como estrategia para caracterizar as concepcoes de educadores envolvidos na prevencao da dengue, por meio de Oficinas de Jogos Teatrais. A linguagem teatral foi escolhida por ser dialogica, estabelecer relacao com a inventividade da ciencia, estimular a colaboracao e provocar a acao espontânea dos participantes. A analise dos resultados evidenciou o relato dos educadores sobre a sensacao de isolamento profissional bem como a desconfianca quanto a credibilidade do poder executivo. Concluimos que e possivel utilizar experiencias teatrais para organizar espacos propicios a analise coletiva de situacoes ligadas a problemas de saude publica, estimulando acoes cooperativas por parte dos educadores.

Construcción de espacios de escucha, diagnóstico y análisis colectivo de problemas de salud pública con el lenguaje teatral: el caso de los talleres de juegos teatrales en el dengue

As caracteristicas historicas, sociais e ecologicas da dengue tem motivado acoes de educacao em saude visando medidas preventivas. Acoes educativas e comunitarias que partam do contexto da populacao envolvida tem sido apontadas como cruciais. No presente estudo, investigou-se a utilizacao da linguagem teatral como estrategia para caracterizar as concepcoes de educadores envolvidos na prevencao da dengue, por meio de Oficinas de Jogos Teatrais. A linguagem teatral foi escolhida por ser dialogica, estabelecer relacao com a inventividade da ciencia, estimular a colaboracao e provocar a acao espontânea dos participantes. A analise dos resultados evidenciou o relato dos educadores sobre a sensacao de isolamento profissional bem como a desconfianca quanto a credibilidade do poder executivo. Concluimos que e possivel utilizar experiencias teatrais para organizar espacos propicios a analise coletiva de situacoes ligadas a problemas de saude publica, estimulando acoes cooperativas por parte dos educadores.

Construction of spaces for listening, diagnosis and collective analysis of problems of public health using theatrical language: the case of workshops of theatrical games relating to dengue

As caracteristicas historicas, sociais e ecologicas da dengue tem motivado acoes de educacao em saude visando medidas preventivas. Acoes educativas e comunitarias que partam do contexto da populacao envolvida tem sido apontadas como cruciais. No presente estudo, investigou-se a utilizacao da linguagem teatral como estrategia para caracterizar as concepcoes de educadores envolvidos na prevencao da dengue, por meio de Oficinas de Jogos Teatrais. A linguagem teatral foi escolhida por ser dialogica, estabelecer relacao com a inventividade da ciencia, estimular a colaboracao e provocar a acao espontânea dos participantes. A analise dos resultados evidenciou o relato dos educadores sobre a sensacao de isolamento profissional bem como a desconfianca quanto a credibilidade do poder executivo. Concluimos que e possivel utilizar experiencias teatrais para organizar espacos propicios a analise coletiva de situacoes ligadas a problemas de saude publica, estimulando acoes cooperativas por parte dos educadores.