Estudo de radiações ionizantes e não ionizantes utilizando como facilitador a câmara de nuvens caseira

Abstract

One of the main concerns about teaching Physics is how students will understand the concepts taught in the classroom. It is important to find new options, break routines and paradigms. The difficulty is even greater when working with Modern and Contemporary Physics, due to how school material approaches important concepts superficially, such as: ionizing and non-ionizing radiation, blackbody radiation, natural and artificial radiation. Another difficulty encountered in working with such concepts is their abstraction. Therefore, the teacher ends up choosing to work with Classical Physics contents. From this perspective, this study aims to build and implement a homemade cloud chamber through a didactic sequence, simplifying the understanding of ionizing and non-ionizing radiation concepts, turning abstract concepts into tangible ones, hence helping the learners and enabling them to associate the content with their daily lives, recognizing the harms and benefits. This study was developed at the Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology of Mato Grosso, Confresa Campus, with two 3rd grade high school classes (A and B) integrated with Agricultural Technician. The development of the project, as well as the application of real and virtual experiments, were done throughout twelve lessons. The didactic sequence prioritizes students' previous knowledge through dialogued and expository lessons and it is based on three pedagogical moments designed by Paulo Freire and adapted by Delizoicov for the teaching of Physics. During the development of the product, an improvement in the students’ learning and understanding of the contents can be perceived, due to their questions and great interest in the classes. As a relevant result of this work, we highlight the opportunity of working Modern and Contemporary Physics showing new possibilities and perspectives of knowledge, in addition to breaking barriers between students and radiation concepts; lessons learnt by them once and for all.