Introducing students from Fundamental Education I to Scientific Education: the sooner the better

Abstract

The Brazilian formal education system is undergoing a crisis. Our students achieve low performances according to data collected by the Basic Education Development Ranking of the Ministry of Education, with the students from Bahia and Salvador scoring lower than the national average. Following a worldwide tendency towards recognizing the importance of non-formal and informal teaching spaces, as well as upon the importance of scientific literacy in promoting citizenship, the Social Program for Education, Vocation and Dissemination of Scientific Education emerged within the Federal University of Bahia (CAM/UFBA), which was the starting-point for this action-research study. The aim of this paper is to share an innovative experience of scientific training directed at students from the 1st Fundamental Education. The experience was conducted by a teacher who has created an Advanced Sciences Center (ASC) at a municipal school, in the outskirts of Salvador, Bahia, Brazil. The ASC resulted from a partnership with the project “University-School Collaborative Network for Education, Vocation and Scientific Dissemination in Bahia”. The study included 15 participating students, between 10 and 12 years old, who were supervised while: actively contributing to choosing research themes; reading and discussing bibliography; producing texts, videos, experiments and games; and disseminating the products, both in the Revista Jovens Cientistas and during the 5th Young Scientists Meeting. From this innovative experience resulted: 10 experiments; 3 videos; 1 game; 1 lecture and 4 articles related to scientific dissemination. The students felt valued and proud of the work they developed. The relationship between University and School was of crucial importance for the success of this initiative, which proved essential to teacher training and to the involvement of students in scientific activities within a dynamic and active process.