GAMIFICATION AS A STRATEGY IN THE TEACHING AND LEARNING PROCESS OF NATURAL SCIENCES
Gamification. Playfulness. Construction of knowledge. Human Body.
In the conception of structuring a form of teaching in the area of knowledge of natural sciences, starting from something that students already have familiarity and sympathy with. The objective of this research was to propose the use of the active learning methodology of hypermedia gamification for students in the 5th year of regular education at a municipal school in Rolim de Moura/RO. Students were encouraged through gamification to develop the skills and competencies required in the natural sciences curriculum regarding the functioning of the human body. The research involved the participation of two classes, an experimental one containing 23 students and a control group containing 20 students. The socioeconomic profile of students in the two classes were analyzed using descriptive statistics, in addition, the Chi-square test was used to assess whether attributes such as internet access and parental education are related to the results obtained and the students' academic performance. At the end of all stages of the project, the viability of the aforementioned teaching methodology was assessed by comparing the results obtained between diagnostic probes 1 and 2, in addition, as a way of monitoring the results, a script was also adopted of observation. To compare the average performance of students in each class, control and experimental, in the diagnostic survey and 1 and 2, the paired t-test was used, and the independent t-test was also applied to compare the evolution of knowledge on the topic. between the classes in the diagnostic survey and 1 and 2. The observation guide for the proposed activities that took place throughout the research process focused on directing an attentive look at issues such as engagement, participation, understanding of the content and commitment demonstrated by the students during the execution of the activities, thus evaluating the benefits that the method has to offer to the teaching process in question. Regarding the results, it was found that the two classes, experimental and control, had similar socioeconomic conditions, in addition, students who had fathers and mothers with higher levels of education performed better. The statistics showed, through the paired t-test, greater improvements in performance per sample unit regarding understanding of the content in the experimental Class A than in the control Class B. The independent t-test indicated that there was construction of knowledge in both classes, but on a greater scale in experimental class A. Regarding the observation made by the applying teacher, it was found that gamification can contribute to some important aspects, necessary for school development.