NUTRITION AND SPORTS: A BIOCHEMICAL APPROACH

Abstract

This work presents a course dedicated to the pedagogical instruction of graduate students (Ensino deBioqumica - QBQ 5711) in which they have to plan and teach a 30 hour-discipline for undergraduatestudents. The graduate students have to choose a subject for the discipline and, in 2003, the cho-sen subject was Nutrition and Sports: a Biochemical Approach, which is not specically broached inregular disciplines. The discipline was structured in the basis of collaborative learning, thus, the 75 en-rolled undergraduate students (from dierent courses as Nutrition, Sports, Pharmacy, Chemistry andBiology) were organized in small working groups. The students were given a study guide produced bythe graduate teachers (available in Portuguese at http://www.sbbq.org.br/revista/mtdidaticos.php),in which the following contents were covered: muscle contraction, O2 up-take, oxidative stress andanti-oxidant response, cramp, hydration, doping and nutritional supplies. In the nal activity thestudents had to evaluate critically myths and true facts in 80 statements usually associated to physi-cal activities and sports. The discipline was evaluated through questionnaires. From the analysis ofthe answers of both undergraduate and graduate/teachers students it is possible to conclude that thediscipline was well conduced and succeeded. These results emphasize the relevance and contribution ofthis kind of discipline to the pedagogical instruction of the graduate students and also to the increaseof undergraduate students interests in Biochemistry.