Superfície "uma aventura de recolonização da terra": um RPG didático sobre forças intermoleculares baseado na BNCC

Abstract

This study proposes the use of an original Role-Playing Game (RPG) for collaborative teaching and/or reinforcement of the physical properties of matter. RPG, which stands for Role-Playing Game, involves a narrator/master, typically the teacher, who guides players, the students, through a story. Through RPG, situations beyond the classroom reality are created, immersing students in a simulated environment where they embody characters with predefined abilities, facing challenges set by the game master. The proposed RPG is a ludic-didactic game focusing on content such as density, melting and boiling points, polarity, intermolecular forces, and solubility. The research aimed to align certain game characteristics and skills with the National Common Curricular Base (BNCC) and describe how using this resource facilitates their development. The educational product was implemented with 3rd-grade students at the Osmira Eduardo de Castro State School, where the researcher works. The students, as research subjects, had previously encountered the game's content, enabling review, reinforcement, and modification. This qualitative research involved participant observation, considering both the subjects' actions and the researcher's influence, inherent in the RPG nature (the master/player relationship), which contributed to constructing the game's narrative. The educational product was introduced to the class, including setting presentation, rules, and group gameplay. Data collection involved transcribing game sessions along with the researcher's field notes. Subsequently, a questionnaire was administered to gauge overall student perceptions of the game. Content analysis by Bardin's technique categorized and framed the data regarding skills and competencies, showing how the game facilitated their development. The study revealed a recall of prior knowledge about density and intermolecular forces, as proposed by the game challenges, along with unexpected topics, indicating potential for addressing other content. Additionally, the emergence of alternative conceptions and their influence on erroneous predictions of material properties was observed. Dialogues among students during gameplay emphasized the intense use of chemical knowledge to solve challenges in various contexts, highlighting the game's ludic nature. RPG emerges as a versatile tool for creating learning situations involving scientific knowledge, exercising and developing BNCC competencies and skills, mapping student difficulties, and offering an alternative and enjoyable methodology for teaching chemistry.