A formulação e resolução de problemas geométricos com base em sólidos geométricos

Abstract

Geometry is a very important area of mathematical knowledge, but the pedagogical work, when accomplished on most schools in Brazil, with this important mathematical content, is still fragilized and, unfortunetly, the students present a huge difficulty on comprehending the concepts and aplications of the content. A way we found to enable change on the current reality is propose the use of practical activities with manipulable materials using the formulation and resolution of geometrical problems. The formulation and resolution of problems in Mathematic still is a methodology of teaching-learning problem underexplored in math classes. In this sense, we analyze the process of formulating and resolution of geometrical problems by students of the 3rd year of high school of a public school in Campina Grande-PB, based on activities with manipulable materials. The participants of the research were students from the 3rd year of high school of a public state school from the city of Campina Grande-PB. This research is qualitative and was developed under the project Investigating the Formulation and Resolution of Mathematical Problems in the Classroom: Exploring Connections between School and University, from the Observatory of Education Program, from CAPES and of which we were part of as scholarship / researcher. The research initiated from a bibliographic revision and theoretical study about the importance of Spacial Geometry in high school and the use of manipulable materials in math class and the Formulation and Resolution of Geometrical Problems. Subsequently, we applied some tasks in activities that were carried out in small groups and that involved the use of Geometric Solids and Platonic Solids, in which the students used their creativity to formulate and solve geometric problems, which also resulted in a class case study, highlighting one of the participating groups. The data was collected through a semi-structured interview with the class teacher and one of the group of students who stood out, participant observation, video and audio recordings, and recorded and written records of the student. The results indicated that there is a great fragility from students of this class in geometric basic knowledge and due to the fact that they are not accustomed working in groups, resulted on limitation regarding the formulation of problems, once the students of the class formulated non-geometric problems, geometric problems with a numeric dice and geometric problems without numeric dices, utilizing only one strategy for formulation and solving. Regarding the highlighted group, Group 02, his students formulated geometric problems with numerical data and geometric problems without numerical data. The analyses of the data also showed that it is possible propose tasks and activities to the students that can stimulate the creative potential in mathematics of each student.