Determinação da constante de Boltzmann e o estudo de semicondutores no terceiro ano do ensino médio

Abstract

Considering the teaching practice and the development of the experiments that promote the Physics teaching, we present an educational product along with a script of an experiment that allows finding Boltzmann's constant. The educational product consists of electrical current measurements of an electroluminescent diode at temperatures between 0 and 100 °C, made at low cost on the Arduino platform and it is associated with a didactic sequence for studies about semiconductors in the high school. The Boltzmann constant can be found using the analysis of the current vs. tension of the diode, according to the Shockley equation. For the student’s comprehension of the physical properties of a semiconductor diode along with the methodology, we revise a series of concepts like: electrostatic, electric current, electric circuits, electrical resistance, Ohm's Law and Kirchhoff's Laws. The didactic transposition of the semiconductors concepts, pn junction and Shockley's equation offered a theoretical base for the comprehension of the function of a diode and some fundamentals of Modern Physics. We conclude that the application of this educational product in experimental classes could attribute a new meaningful learning that awakened more students’ interests for studying Physics.