O jogo “Ciclo das Rochas” para ensino de Geociências

Abstract

It is quite easy to find educational games and toys, as well as papers, for teaching of different disciplines, specially Mathematics. There are however few experiences of games for Geology teaching. The “Rock Cycle” game aims to stimulate teaching by means of a simple and easy-to-construct “board-and-playing-cards” structure. The problem - to build a model of the rock cycle - develops some typical reasonings of the Geosciences and, or, more specifically, Geology. The small groups of players cooperate and/or compete to solve the problem. The playing cards yield information the players need to fulfil a diagram of the cycle. There are two card types: the (red) “process cards” describe the main processes (weathering, erosion etc.), while the (blue) “product cards” refer to natural materials (rock types, sediments etc.). Hint-cards provide information to help plotting a given card on the board. The board models (diagram structures) provide “basic” and “advanced” difficulty levels. The basic-level board model is a diagram of the rock cycle, whose boxes should be filled by the players. The advanced-level board model increases the complexity by a similar box network, without the underlying diagram. The choice depends both on the school level and the familiarity with Geology concepts by participants. The practical tests suggest games to be highly positive for teaching-learning. The proposal can be an educational tool, therefore largely exceeding the functions of an entertainment object, because the “Rock Cycle” game helps to popularize new theoretical concepts related to the subject