Abstract
Some animals present venom, which is a mixture of several molecules used as a biological weapon against natural enemies or preys. Several of these animals are part of the huge Brazilian biodiversity and these venoms have a huge biotechnological potential as feasible natural drugs for treatment of important diseases such as thrombosis. Since educational games are described as auxiliary tools for teaching complex themes, in this work we constructed a school game about venomous animals including protective instructions when in contact with some of them. The purpose of our game named “On the path of venomous animals” was to teach about this theme. It was constructed based on previous concepts of Brazilian high school students and approaches important topics (e.g.how to act when bitten by snakes) presented in a board format with cards containing the questions to be answered about different situations (luck or mischance). The game requests teacher’s participation, and involves simulations of everyday life situations as well as the risk of encountering a poisonous animal. We tested the game with high school students aged from 16 to 18 years and despite most of them did not know much about these animals they were very interested on them. The use of this playful game as an educational instrument may allow learning about biodiversity whereas enhanced their perception of venom biotechnology potentiality.
Highlights
In the educational process, the use of games is known as a facilitator of the teaching and learning process as well as for children development as it allows reasoning and amusement whereas integrates them in the scholar social group (Malone & Lepper, 1987; Jacobs & Baum, 1987; Pierozan & Brancher, 2004).Board Games can be used to approach complex topics in biology (Cardoso et al, 2008)
We tested the game with high school students aged from 16 to 18 years and despite most of them did not know much about these animals they were very interested on them
Our game was initiated by an invitation, as proposed by Macedo, 1995 with a playful-pedagogical strategy presented in a dynamic way about different topics
Summary
The use of games is known as a facilitator of the teaching and learning process as well as for children development as it allows reasoning and amusement whereas integrates them in the scholar social group (Malone & Lepper, 1987; Jacobs & Baum, 1987; Pierozan & Brancher, 2004). The concepts and attitudes about venomous and poisonous animals are normally confused due to its complexity and few informative materials (Azeredo et al, 2020) Venomous animals are those with a gland that produces poison and an apparatus (e.g. teeth, stings, thorns, capsules, bristles) capable of inoculating it on a prey (Brazil, 2020b); whereas the poisonous animals produce poison, but don’t have these anatomical apparatus, causing the poisoning through contact, compression or ingestion (Amaral, 2001). Our purpose was to teach about their differences and to exemplify about their biotechnological aspects, promoting interaction and inspiring curiosity regarding them
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