O estudo da função afim através de experimentos na cinemática: uma experiência interdisciplinar

Abstract

Currently, the relevance of interdisciplinary projects in school and academic contexts has been discussed aiming at the global development of the students and the teaching through practices that encourage students to reflect on the themes studied in a critical and transforming way. Although the PCN (National Curriculum Parameters, used in Brazil) encourage interdisciplinary practices, and the ENEM (Exame Nacional do Ensino Médio, a test used for admission in universities in Brazil), which promotes, among other things, further integration between subjects in high school, mathematics classes and, in particular, that about affine functions, are often presented in a traditional way, in which the students are not motivated to learn. In this context, a survey was conducted about an interdisciplinary approach with the use of a ludic tool in teaching affine functions to the first year of high school of a teachers training course of a public school, located in the city of Queimados, RJ. Such research consisted of a case study whose objective was to evaluate in the study group, the progress of learning affine functions and the motivation to study mathematics with an interdisciplinary approach of the theme through physical experiments in the kinematics area. The research activity consisted of several stages. In the first, there were applied a motivational questionnaire and a pre-test in order to assess the level of student motivation in learning mathematics and the prior knowledge of affine functions and uniform rectilinear motion. After this, experiments were carried out using a toy train, which accomplished a railway uniform rectilinear motion. Some milestones on the road have been established and, with the aid of the cell phones from the students, the movement was filmed. Quickly the students obtained, through the reading of the video, the instant that the mobile passed at each milestone. The experiments took place with the train in two distinct speeds, and also in the direction of the path and against the direction of the path, allowing the teacher to work with content related to affine functions and uniform movement. Finally there were applied a post-test about affine functions and uniform rectilinear motion and a new motivational questionnaire in mathematics, which evaluated the impressions of students about the experiment conducted. After that, the results obtained in the tests to assess the evolution of learning about affine functions and motivation to learn mathematics were confronted before and after the experiment. These assessments were made qualitatively and quantitatively by analyzing the scores obtained in the test and the way the students recorded their discursive answers in them.