Abstract:

The teaching of Geosciences presupposes the use of laboratory practical activities (LPA), since they allow the simulation of natural processes that, for reasons of space and time scales, are difficult to study in the natural environment, and because of that, complex to understand by students. The study of paleomagnetism, a study of the past geomagnetic field, allows us to obtain information about its behaviour in the past, as well as, infer about its influence in some Earth's history events. On the other hand, paleomagnetic studies were essential in the advance of scientific knowledge that led to the construction of the theory that indelibly marks the geological sciences in the second half of the XX century, the Plate tectonics. The purpose of this paper is to present a proposal of LPA, in the scope of the magnetic field and paleomagnetism study. The theme under study was ‘The first steps of a new theory. The Plate Tectonic Theory’, a programmatic content of the 12th grade Geology, of Portuguese high school. Were prepared a plan and pedagogical resources (PowerPoint document, LPA protocol and evaluation grids) necessary for their fulfilment. The development of this LPA proposal is justified by: first, this is a content on which students show particular difficulties; second, none of the textbooks available for this curricular area and level of education, presents proposals of LPA on this subject. Thus, it’s intended that this proposal will be a complement to the LPA existent on the textbooks, in order to contribute to the enrichment of teaching and learning processes.

Keywords:

High school, Laboratory practical activities, magnetic field, paleomagnetism.