Abstract
With the emergence of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), there was also the development of specific technologies applied to Environmental Education which are used by teachers. In this context, several softwares for teaching/learning were developed, with educational games aiming at stimulating student’s knowledge skills using amusement among the available modalities. In Brazil, several digital games have been created to meet the demands set out in the National Water Resources Policies (Law 9433/97) and Environmental Education (Law 9795/99), which states in its Article 2 that Environmental Education must be present at all levels of education. The present study characterized the profile of students of Elementary School II on the issue of water and verified the satisfaction of the digital game on the part of the students, identifying suggestions and ideas as to the benefits that the practice of digital gaming can offer in the classroom and in teaching practice. The study was developed in a school unit, part of the education network of Taubaté municipality, SP, and carried out with 63 eighth-grade students, with ages varying from 13 to 14 years, using the digital game Educa-Ação-Água. The first activity in this study was to raise students’ awareness through a visit to the municipality’s water capture and treatment station. In the data collection phase, a first questionnaire was applied in order to determine the students’ level of knowledge on the topic of water and, later, after the students played the digital game, they answered a second questionnaire. The activity with the digital game Educa-Ação-Água led to students’ awareness and learning about the water theme, leading them to recognize its importance and developing critical sense. In an evaluation of the game, it was observed that 51.6% of the students rated the game as “Good” and 35% of them rated it as “Very Good”, 88% felt encouraged to finish the game (Save the Tijuco River) and about 65% would play again at home or in the classroom. There was a contribution from students (players) when evaluating the game Educa-Ação-Água, noting points to be improved. The use of the WordCloud Tool allowed for a satisfactory graphical visualization of the students’ answers.
Highlights
Aspects related to the theme of environmental issues are increasingly becoming the focus of discussions in different areas of knowledge
According to Brasil (1998), the topic “water and hydrographic basins” described in the National Curriculum Parameters for the Environment in the discipline of Geography is conceptualized in the 6th grade of Elementary School II
As the objective was to verify students' perception of the game and their knowledge, its application in the 8th grades was important, as the theme of watersheds had already been addressed in the discipline of Geography in previous school years, facilitating the understanding of the issues involved in the game, providing students with greater focus on the game
Summary
Aspects related to the theme of environmental issues are increasingly becoming the focus of discussions in different areas of knowledge. According to Baião and Batista (2016), within this principle several authors such as Schiel et al (2002), Callisto (2002), Batista et al (2005), Scatena (2005), Bergman and Pedrozo (2008) and Guimarães et al (2012) explored the hydrographic basin, involving teachers, students and communities, through a study of the environmental conditions of this territorial unit in which knowledge about soil, relief, geology, vegetation, fauna, climate, anthropic impacts and recovery possibilities were explored In this context, the Educa-Ação-Água project (Table 1) was conceived with the purpose of contributing to foster new modeling alternatives in teaching, understanding, technological diffusion in the assessment of water balance, through the joint analysis of aspects of quantity and water quality in hydrographic basins, and being accessible to the different levels of pedagogical needs of teachers and schools, in addition to promoting the concept of citizenship, sharing the collective use of natural resources existing in the Brazilian territory (Targa et al, 2017). The present study aimed to encourage students to recognize the importance of human water using a digital game and to verify the students' opinions and assessment regarding the game and the value it added to their learning
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