Promoção da saúde mental na escola: uma sequência didática para o ensino de Biologia sobre sistema nervoso e sua relação com as emoções

Abstract

Approximately 10% of the world's population suffers from mental disorders, corresponding to approximately 720 million people. Brazil is the country that leads the ranking of anxiety and depression in Latin America, with almost 19 million people in these conditions. Worldwide, approximately 800,000 people commit suicide annually in Brazil, this is the third leading cause of death among young people aged 15 to 19. Thus, the present work, based on the studies of Daniel Goleman, aims to explore socio-emotional skills and the promotion of mental health based on the demands of the crisis identified in daily school life, intensified in the post-pandemic scenario. As a methodological procedure, an investigative didactic sequence was developed based on the biological content “nervous system and its relationship with emotions and mental health”. The work consisted of the production and analysis of word clouds about everyday emotions, at the beginning and end, an expository and dialogued class about the central and peripheral nervous system, a showing of the film Inside Out II and discussions. Next, the students carried out a survey of hypotheses about the importance of stress for survival and quality of life, researched stress to create awareness-raising material about mental health and, at the end, returned to the initial hypotheses as a way of evaluating learning. The study was conducted with third-year high school students at Colégio Estadual João Köpke, located in the city of Engenheiro Paulo de Frontin, in the interior of the state of Rio de Janeiro. As a result, the students produced awareness-raising materials related to stress, made available on a website built for access by the school community, which was voluntarily validated by biology teachers and teachers of related areas.The content was interpreted through content analysis by frequency, where the initial and final hypotheses about the importance of stress for survival and quality of life were supported. It was observed that the final analyses provided a greater understanding of the positive and negative aspects of stress. And the word clouds showed anxiety as the most expressive emotion in both moments, confirming the relevance of research in this context. Thus, it is expected that this study will contribute as a proposal for promoting mental health through Biology Teaching in Basic Education.