Abstract:

The current educational model has been the target of different criticisms by educators, thinkers, and researchers, proposing methodologies to promote an improvement in the teaching and learning system. In Brazil, the most recent guiding document for basic education is aligned with the guidelines of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), based on the development of competencies. It also advocates that the Natural Sciences area should have a commitment to the development of scientific literacy, so that students become citizens capable of acting on and about the world based on theoretical and procedural contributions from the sciences. However, results from large-scale assessments suggest that science education in Brazil has not achieved its objectives, both due to structural, political, and economic issues and issues related to the methodologies used in the classroom.
Thus, approaches based on STEAM education emerge as an alternative to implement interdisciplinary or transdisciplinary projects contextualized to the reality of students, focusing on active methodologies and with the aim of fostering students' interest in scientific careers, instigating curiosity, developing creativity, critical thinking and collaborative work, aiming to improve problem solving skills.
In addition, the inclusion of the History of Science and Technology in science teaching has been advised due to its potential to contribute to humanizing science, contextualizing problem situations, bringing science closer to students' interests, making classes more reflexive (contributing to the development of critical thinking) and work on issues related to the nature of science.
Considering that there are common goals and that non-formal education projects can contribute to enhancing formal education, offering more flexible and attractive learning practices to 21st-century youth, an extension project was formulated to serve students in the last year of basic school in a municipal public school. The activities took place in weekly meetings through a STEAM approach inspired by episodes of the History of Science and Technology, with lectures, reading texts, reproduction of experiments, and maker activities. The themes worked on include the invention of the phonograph, the use of solar energy, and Galileo's inclined plane.
The study is based on three cycles of an action research plan, two of which have already been executed. Data were collected through objective tests, open forms, slide production, student presentations in the classroom, among others. Preliminary results, analyzed by non-parametric statistical tests, descriptive statistics, and content analysis, indicate that there was an improvement in the students' level of scientific literacy, with impacts on the understanding of technical and scientific concepts and terms, on the understanding of the nature of science and on the relationships between science, technology and society.
Subsequent studies will involve the analysis of interviews with teachers and students, as well as data related to the third cycle. In this communication, we will focus on the data already analyzed (two cycles completed).
This work is financed by National Funds through FCT - Foundation for Science and Technology, I.P. under the projects UIDB/00194/2020 (CIDTFF).

Keywords:

History of Science, STEAM education, Science teaching, Non-formal education, Scientific Literacy.