O método da falsa posição: Uma alternativa para o ensino de resolução de problemas envolvendo equações do 1º grau

Abstract

The main objective of this research is to see whether the false position method, used to solve some problems Rhind Papyrus, can be an alternative for solving problems that involve the 1st degree equations with one unknown for students from the 7th grade of elementary school. The Egyptians used this method and this is a way to find the solution of the problem by requiring an initial value, considered the false position, which should be adjusted immediately to obtain the correct value. As we noted not rare that this strategy is adopted by students nowadays, we believe this is a plausible alternative to the teaching content. To check the effectiveness of the method, We conducted a case study – adopting a qualitative approach to analyze the data collected in search – with a group of the 7th grade in a municipal school in Rio de Janeiro. We propose a sequence of three activities, applied in a single meeting, where after the resolution of problems by students, we began a discussion of what strategies adopted. After the resolution of the first activity, a problem taken from the Rhind Papyrus, during the period for the discussion of the problem, we show how the Egyptians resolved. We can see that a considerable amount of them identified with the method, by the way they decided later activities.