Clube de desbravadores: possíveis relações com o ensino de ciências em espaços não formais

Abstract

The city of Manaus is considered the world capital of pathfinders for having more than 342 of these active clubs. The Pathfinder’s Club is recognized for its recreational and community activities and applied studies in several areas, including Nature Studies. Despite the content's presence related to Science Teaching, in scientific literature reviews, there are no studies that address the direct relationship between the Club and the Science discipline, and few works attribute to the Club the characteristic of a non-formal space. Therefore, through qualitative research that sought to analyze the possible relationships between the Pathfinders Club and the Teaching of Science in formal spaces, 12 pathfinders participated in a semi-structured interview. Composing two groups of 7 and 5 participants who attend the 6th to 9th grade answering questions that relate the Club with the Science discipline at school. The interviews lasted an average of 35 minutes, making it possible to perceive through the coding process themes that prevail in the Pathfinder’s discourse, such as: Being a Pathfinder, Nature, Fauna, Flora, Science and Club, Differences between learning at the Club and school, and Health. Given this, the research focused on themes related to Science Teaching that represented categories created in the categorization process, such as Nature, Zoology, Botany, Learning, and Singularities. The three words most spoken by the pathfinders and that curiously represent Zoology, Botany, and Nature were selected to represent the expected learning at the Club and at school and how this learning differs in the two spaces. As for which space they learn better, group 1 considered learning better at the Club and group 2 at school, the reasons for these thoughts are arranged in topics that reveal the motivations of the pathfinders for their answers, involving: the relationship between pathfinder and instructor, practices and discipline/time. Finally, it is understood that the contents of science are significantly present in the Club and these same contents are addressed at school. According to the pathfinders, the two spaces teach the same thing, only in a different way. This different way proved to be the greater amount of practice in Club, better relationship with the instructors, the Christian scope, greater discipline, and availability of time. According to the pathfinders, the school was characterized by its complexity and amount of content. Therefore, the attribution of the Pathfinders Club as a non-formal space where Science Teaching and, consequently learning are possible is strengthened. Keywords: Middle School; Common National Curriculum Base; Potentialities.