A construção do Relógio de Sol para o auxílio do ensino de unidades de tempo

Abstract

This research had as general objective to investigate the contribution of activities involving the History of Mathematics, through the sundial, in two class of the 6th year of elementary school, in the content of units of time. To this end, the following specific objectives were defined: (1) To elaborate and develop a proposal of historical activities involving the sundial to work with units of time; (2) Evaluate the potentialities and limitations of the proposal of activities involving the sundial to work time units, in two classes of the 6th year of Elementary School. Regarding the approach, this research is qualitative and, as far as the objectives are concerned, it is exploratory. The instrument used was a questionnaire. The subjects of the research were thirty-two students from two classes of the 6th grade (C and D), from a municipal public school located in the city of Mamanguape, state of Paraíba. We used as theoretical reference Mendes (2009) regarding the use of historical activities in Mathematics classes, in addition to the National Curricular Parameters (BRASIL, 1998) about the use of history of mathematics in the classroom. As we turned out, the experience, in the view of the students, provided a "different lesson" which facilitated the understanding of the contents through its history. In addition, we observed that the use of sundial as a historical instrument is an approach with interdisciplinary potential. We conclude that the proposal of the use of historical activities with the sundial positively had its potentiality evidenced, based on our experience in the two classes of 6th grade, Elementary School.