A produção e aplicação de um jogo de tabuleiro para o ensino de Biologia: contextualizando o corpo humano sob o efeito de substâncias alcóolicas

Abstract

The teaching of Biology in the Youth and Adult Education modality is part of a set of subjects of Natural Sciences. In Biology one of the contents of great relevance and interest toward students is the recognition of the structure and functioning of human body. Wondering on how to bring the content “anatomy and physiology of human body systems” to the students' experience and promoting an union between educational games and playfulness, a board game was developed. From the theme “drugs or substance abuse”, students participated in the activity learning about the functioning of the human body and the connectivity between all physiological systems under the influence of alcohol. This was a way of linking the activity to a theme of social interest and the reality of many students. According to the World Health Organization, substances of abuse are defined as those that act on the central nervous system promoting behavioral changes, mood and cognition possessing great reinforcing property, which leads to addiction. As an alternative to traditional classroom lessons, a game entitled “Knowing the Human Body Systems through the Alcohol Pathway and its Effects” was developed to bring meaning to students' previous knowledge, to review and solidify the content about the systems of the Human Body. It is a board game which students themselves walk through numbered squares answering system-related questions. The game is over when the first player achieve the last square. Each player walks three squares as he/she answer correctly and walks two squares when he/she misses it. After the playful activity was applied, the participating students completed a form to evaluate the educational tool. They served to verify the tool playfulness and meaningful learning occurrence according to David Ausubel’s proposal. Students' participation and interest in getting more involved in the class was observed. According to the results, it was unanimous the agreement that the game brought more meaning to the previous knowledge about the functioning and connectivity between the systems that compose the organism. The game also provided moments of fun, increased confidence in learning the content in question, greater integration between the students/teacher themselves and increased role of students during class.