The progress in the areas of molecular biology and biotechnology has been demonstrating the importance of the teaching-learning of those subjects to students and teachers of the elementary and high school as well as to the society in general.In this sense, the Scientific Dissemination Coordination of CBME has as objective contributes for the dissemination and learning of techniques and basic concepts in that area of the knowledge, in order to awake in the public the scientific interest and the critical sense related to these advances.With the goal to offer elements for the elaboration of activities addressed to science teachers of elementary and high school, a survey of their conceptions on science and biotechnology was made. A questionnaire was applied to 30 teachers that participated in updating courses and training, being that 13 teachers belonged to the region of São Carlos city (SP), 8 belonged to the region of Campinas city (SP) and 9 belonged to Fortaleza city (CE).The questionnaire was applied to the teachers in the beginning of the courses and it was composed of different types of questions, which allowed capturing their personal reflections about science, their knowledge on basic concepts of cell and molecular biology, and their opinions about the applications of the biotechnology.In the analysis of the question What you think about using the modern biotechnology in the production of foods to increase its protein content, in order to turn it larger or to change its taste?, 57% of the teachers agreed partially that this application is useful for the society, 52% agreed totally that the application is morally acceptable while 70% totally disagree as for the encouragement of this application.Some conflicts presented in the registered answers reflect, in certain way, the conflict shown by the academic and scientific communities, as for the ethical aspects of some applications such as transgenic foods, genetic manipulation in animals and the possibility of human cloning.
The time lag between the progresses in the area of molecular biology reached in the last years and the schools science curricula can be reduced through initiatives of the university regarding the dissemination of sciences. Inside of this context, one of the major objectives of the CBME has been the scientific education and dissemination on Molecular Biosciences. Among the strategies organized to promote the dissemination of this area, the Scientific Dissemination Coordination of CBME developed a set of playful activities for students from public and private elementary schools (7th and 8th grades). As a first step science teachers were interviewed in order to indicate which topics related to molecular biosciences they usually include in their curricula planning. The approach considered in the elaboration of the set of activities was the construction of knowledge of the concepts related to topics as cell types, their structures and organelles, and the importance of the nucleus and DNA. The set was offered to 170 students. Students from private schools were evaluated by their performance through the classes, which were registered by the notes of the instructors. Students from public schools were evaluated through questionnaires containing basic concepts on the theme applied before (pre-test) and after (post-test) the set of activities in order to measure, respectively, the previous and acquired knowledge. The programming accomplished at the public school was partially modified due to the absence of a laboratory, microscopes and a room of computers, without, however, to alter the objectives and content of the activities. The comparative analysis of the pre-and post-tests revealed that, in this latter, there was an increase of the average percentage of correct answers and an improvement on the elaboration of the answers. These results assure the efficiency of the program and the methodology used. The students considered the organization, contents and methodology employed in the course as being satisfactory. Support by CNPq and FAPESP 1
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.