O Museu de História Natural da UFLA como um espaço de divulgação científica e a formação inicial de professores

Abstract

This experience report refers to the actions of teaching and dissemination of science held at the Natural History Museum of the Federal University of Lavras. The activity under investigation was a didactic proposal for Chemistry teaching by exploring the collection of this museum. We aimed at developing a new teaching practice within a natural history museum in order to promote the dissemination and teaching of chemistry related contents as well as investigating what formative contribution was given to the undergraduates involved, who spent part of their supervised practice in this environment of non-formal education. The results obtained were the development of pedagogical practice called "Detectives at the museum - Investigating the question: what is our planet made of ?" and the confirmation of the hypothesis concerning the contributions given to the education of these students during the development of the proposal, once the participation of undergraduates in planning and implementing activities in the museum allowed them the opportunity to complement their education as teachers once they explored a non-formal education environment. We conclude that the experience was valid, especially when considering that the traditional supervised practice of education courses for teachers in Brazil are restricted to the monitoring of lessons in school environments. This way, we draw attention to the fact that, although initiatives in teacher education in nonformal education environments such as museums, science and cultural centers, are few in Brazil, these experiences are substantial and they have been contributing to the initial education of teachers.