A flauta-doce como recurso de ensino e aprendizagem significativa de ondas sonoras no ensino fundamental

Abstract

Teaching and learning science in elementary school can be a challenge, as it is a stage in which children have little mathematical foundation. Prior knowledge, sometimes with conceptual errors, can hinder the study of such content, however, when properly worked on, they serve as anchors for establishing new themes, a basic idea of Ausubel's subsumers, in the Theory of Meaningful Learning, the theoretical educational framework for this work. Based on the study of sound waves, we developed a booklet to motivate teachers to develop classes using the recorder, an accessible and inexpensive musical instrument, aiming to present concepts of sound waves, timbre, frequency, sound intensity, pitch, etc. This educational product was developed at the “Colégio Militar Tiradentes XII”, in the three 9th grade classes. Three types of questionnaires were administered: a pre-test to assess prior knowledge; a post-test to assess evidence of significant learning after a sequence of classes; and a self-assessment at the end of the educational product. The results show an increase in correct answers in nine of the ten questions. Five of them had an increase in correct answers between 8.5% and 16.7%, showing an improvement in the understanding of the concepts of sound, frequency, infrasound, types of waves and sound level. Two of them had an increase in accuracy between 20% and 24.4%, showing an improvement in the calculation of frequency, its use to distinguish sounds and understanding of the concept of wavelength. The understanding of the range of audible sounds grew little, as it was already high, increasing only 3.1%. The understanding of the ultrasound range suffered practically no changes, remaining at around 64% of correct answers. In the self-assessment, 77.6% of the students rated their learning with the project as good to excellent. A total of 94.8% of students rated the project from good to excellent and 94.7% of students rated the teacher's methodology from good to excellent. The results show evidence of meaningful learning.