Adventures in Science - Learning in practice with educational kits and on digital platforms

• Grant number: 25/02366-0
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: July 01, 2025
• End date: June 30, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Physics - General Physics
• Principal Investigator: Vanderlei Salvador Bagnato
• Grantee: Vanderlei Salvador Bagnato
• Host Institution: Instituto de Física de São Carlos (IFSC). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Carlos , SP, Brazil
• Associated researchers: Cristina Kurachi ; Daniel Varela Magalhães ; Kilvia Mayre Farias ; Natalia Mayumi Inada
• Associated research grant: 13/07276-1 - CEPOF - Optics and Photonic Research Center, AP.CEPID

Abstract

The project we are proposing uses IFSC Science Degree students to use the educational kits -Adventures in Science, developed by us (with support from the Brazilian Academy of Sciences)to implement the practice of science as an educational element and create a digital platformwith students and teachers, which is accessible to everyone. Practicing science is afundamental element to consolidate fundamentals and give the student a practicalunderstanding of nature. Science exhibitions and museums constitute an important elementof information and appreciation, but they are not efficient in penetrating, leaving conceptsrooted in students' education. Appreciating science and being fascinated by it is just thebeginning of understanding it. The program that we want to install involving educational kitsthat allow students to actually get their hands dirty and practice science, is a program that wehave already started with the Brazilian Academy of Sciences and that finds in this project a wayof consolidating itself by taking adventures in science kits to many and presenting a digitalplatform using TV and internet that will allow advancement in the learning process outside andinside the school environment. A collection of 14 science kits (prepared by eminent Brazilianscientists) already developed will be placed in several schools to prepare teachers andstudents, allowing the student to take the kit home, carry out experiments and present it totheir class. The IFSC degree students in science will follow the entire process, carry out thedocumentation and help in the process of preparing a national program that allows a certainnumber of these kits to be taken to each school and which will have on public TV and channelsdedicated to this (such as Futura, TV Senado, Canal Educativo das Cidades), a training andcomposition platform with the program. On the one hand, we will train students to practicescience, on the other hand these students will help us bring science to everyone through theinternet and TV programs. Taking into account that in most Brazilian schools' students do nothave the opportunity to attend science laboratories to verify basic concepts in practice, theprogram with kits will be an inclusion of several schools in the practice of science. While in thisproject, we will form the platform with the support of researchers working with students,actions must be taken with the state and federal government to use the experience alreadyacquired by USP to make science good for everyone. The collection of kits presents coveringthe topics of Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Mathematics and Geophysics of planet Earth will beused. With these kits, schools will form science clubs (our pilot program formed around 100science clubs in the São Carlos region, which have made and continue to make a difference inthe practice of science for students) and students will be motivated to carry out basic researchand approach universities for motivation. We will involve the education boards of severalmunicipalities to be part of our program, which, as mentioned, has already been carried out inthe form of a pilot in São Carlos. For undergraduate students, participation in this program willbe the opportunity to put their knowledge into practice and develop the best pedagogical wayof introducing science practice with the participation of students and teachers on the sameplatform. (AU)