Um material paradidático em formato digital para problematizar ideias sobre variações locais da temperatura superficial da Terra ao longo do dia

Abstract

It is well known by the community that works in the area, that the teaching of the Nature Sciences can contribute to a better understanding about the world, providing at the same time a more critical, more curious and questioning posture about natural events. In this context, research in Physics teaching, and Physics teaching itself, in particular, can not be limited to the exposition of laws and theories or to the memorization of mathematical formulas, but must contribute, among other things, to the problematization of situations that provide new meanings for students' daily lives. Among the themes with this potential, we highlight here the ones related to the relation between Astronomy and Environment, by their links with periodicities in the dynamics of nature and its influences in social everyday life. Naturally, teaching Physics in this perspective generates important challenges such as those related to teacher training, the lack of materials to support the teaching work and the natural distrust regarding the traditional mission of the "program compliance". Aiming to contribute to overcome these difficulties, we developed a paradidactic material in digital format aimed at teachers who wish to teach Physics starting from questions that allow to deepen the understanding about correlations between Astronomy and Environment. The central problematization adopted in this work was defined after surveys with students that live on countryside of RN state about what they know and/or wish to know about the Sun, thus raising the question: Why do we feel a difference in the heating of the Earth by the Sun along the day? In order to answer it, we contextualize two hypotheses resulting from the investigation with the students: (a) the height of the Sun in the sky determines how much it warms us; and (b) the accumulation of energy that the Earth receives from the Sun causes temperature variation throughout the day. The discussion of these hypotheses introduces questionings that favor a deepening on the physical nature of the phenomena related to the Earth´s Energy Balance, including concepts of thermodynamics and the interaction between matter and radiation. In addition to the dissertation itself, the material presented here incorporates suggestions from undergraduate students of Physics Teaching and high school Physics teachters who have handled it and made considerations about its suitability and use in scholar contexts.