Contribuições do STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics) à alfabetização científica de estudantes na educação profissional.

Abstract

It is important to equip students with skills and knowledge aimed at technical training in professional and technological education. But it is also important to promote a humanistic foundation that contributes to the integral training of these subjects. STEAM approaches (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics) are strategies that materialize interdisciplinarity, essential for comprehensive training in professional education. Thus, we aim to infer the scientific literacy of students entering professional education to, from this, develop a teaching strategy based on the STEAM approach that could contribute to the development of interdisciplinary actions in professional education. For this, questionnaires (Basic Scientific Literacy Test, TACB) were administered to students entering the IT and Occupational Safety courses at the Centro Estadual de Tempo Integral (CETI) Cândido Borges Castelo Branco. Finally, based on the information obtained regarding the level of scientific literacy of students entering technical courses, it was possible to propose an exhibition in the format of a science fair, applicable to Natural Sciences disciplines with a focus on the STEAM approach, in an interdisciplinary perspective about curricular components aimed at training in professional and technological education. As a result, it was noted that the scientific literacy rates of the studied population were 28% and 35% for the Occupational Safety and IT classes, respectively. Thus, given the Occupational Safety class that had a high rate of non-scientifically literate students, with 72% of non-scientifically literate students, the intervention was proposed, conceiving the event entitled "PONDERA: Scientific Journey in STEAM". The choice of topic was related to Ponderal Laws (Chemistry), Biogeochemical Cycles (Biology), Mass Calculations (Mathematics), the historical context of Ponderal Laws (History), control and precision of reactant masses (Robotics and Engineering), and practical and assimilable description through mind maps (Arts). This integrated approach aimed to offer an enriching learning experience applicable to real life, aligned with the principles of the STEAM method and professional education. Thus, it was possible to identify aspects in which the STEAM approach can apply to the development of skills that contribute to interdisciplinarity, omnilaterality, and the integral training of students, essential aspects of professional training through the proposal of this educational product, contributing to the materialization of interdisciplinarity in this context.