Nora Valeiras

Currículo interdisciplinar para licenciatura em ciências da natureza

An interdisciplinary curriculum for a science teaching undergraduate course will be described. The curriculum allows four degrees according to the Brazilian educational legal requirements: science teacher for the elementary school, and biology, chemistry and physics teacher for the high school. The science teacher degree is obtained by accomplishing the syllabus of the three initial years. For each subsequent year it will be possible to obtain the other degrees. The components of the curriculum for the three initial years are radically interdisciplinary, with a pedagogical organization in such way as to prepare students for the subsequent year dedicated to a specific discipline (biology, chemistry or physics).

La dimensión argumentativa y tecnológica en la formación de docentes de ciencias

El presente articulo analiza las nociones de argumentacion de docentes de ciencias y estudiantes de escuela secundaria y profundiza dicho analisis a traves de la caracterizacion de la potencialidad argumentativa de tres recursos tecnologicos utilizados en el marco de la formacion inicial y continua de profesores de ciencias. Los recursos estudiados son los siguientes: foros de debate, mapas de argumentos (Debategraph) y WISE (Web-based Inquiry Science Environment). En lo que respecta a las ideas sobre argumentacion de profesores y estudiantes, los resultados muestran una diversidad de posturas, expectativas y habilidades. En lo que se refiere a los recursos tecnologicos, puede decirse que los tres recursos combinan dos aspectos clave para el aprendizaje de las ciencias: la argumentacion y la colaboracion. En funcion de los resultados obtenidos, se proponen sugerencias para la incorporacion de la dimension argumentativa y tecnologica en la formacion de docentes de ciencias.

Las representaciones sociales y las reacciones químicas: Desde las explosiones hasta Fukushima

AbstrAct (social representations and chemical reactions: From explosions to Fukushima) One of the most important structuring concepts that teachers develop in the classroom is the one of chemical change and regarding this, there is abundant literature detailing the difficulties generated by its learning. However, is not usually considered the role played by the social representations among the possible factors influencing in the construction of this concept by the students. This article shows results of a research that identifies the structure of the Social Representation that common people has about chemical reactions and the way in which this representation flows through communication media. Thus is proposed the need to broaden the investigations about the influence that social representations have in the learning of various scientific concepts at school. Keywords: Chemical reactions, social representations, explosions, teaching divulgacion de la quimica 1 centro de Formacion e investigacion en ensenanza de las iencias,

Understanding environmental pollution concepts : a case study using school students in Argentina and Puerto Rico

This paper explores concepts about air, water and soil pollution that students of grades 7-9 have in Argentina and Puerto Rico. A structured questionnaire was used in the investigation. A quantitative analysis was carried out to characterise the occurrence and frequency of conceptual errors, and to analyse their decrease with an increase in the educational level of the students. The results showed how students perceived abstract and local problems regarding pollution, and the differences owing to their cultural environments. Finally, the results seemed to support the hypothesis about the importance of cognitive stages and their relation with stages of development and evolution with age.

Distributed learning using on-line learning and computer simulations for solid waste management

This paper describes the courseware developed for a course on Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) for school teachers carried out in a university environment. The course is based on aspects of educational theories of constructivist learning by Lev Vygotsky, David Ausubel and Howard Gardner. Two main modules are discussed in this paper: First, the course contents are provided using a distributed learning approach that includes support in CD and an Internet-based platform called Moodle. Second, a simulation of MSW as a system has been developed using Visual Basic. The simulation is being tested at present.