Projec-Based Learning in Physics - competitions involving robot
battles
It is known that basic education in Brazil, in particular the Physics teaching has serious problems. There are a number of issues, among them we can point out the teaching methodologies of physics based on traditional classes. They are predominantly theoretical and abstract, such that students are unable to associate the content worked on classrooms with real-world Physics. Because of that, the student has a feeling that Physics learned at schools is a useless knowledge for his or her academic formation. It is in this scenario
that the educational product "Project-Based Learning in Physics - competitions involving robot battles" presents as a tool that aims to bridge abstract and practical knowledge. The project's theoretical foundation is based on Project-Based Learning in Physics, with
with emphasis on meaningful learning, and with the aim of fostering motivation and engagement by the students to acquire a necessary ability and skills, enabling them to be the main agent pursuing for knowledge. The project is based on a sequence of activities
to set up the robots for the following competitions: obstacle racing, robot sumo, rescue of a ball and robots popping a bladder. In the preparation stages of competition and assembly of robots, various aspects of classic mechanics have bee explored in order to improve the performance of the robots in the disputes, as well as to master the Physics concepts worked in classrooms. The product was applied throughout the rst semester of 2019 to the students of the Industrial Automation and Electronics courses, integrated to the high school course, in the Escola Técnica Estadual Takashi Morita. After the
competitions have been accomplished, the students were invited to return a questionnaire about activities carried out in order to collect impressions, criticisms and suggestions regarding the educational product. After analyzing the answers, we can conclude that our
educational product had a good acceptance among students regarding their improvements to understand better the concepts of Physics worked in the classrooms.