Learning on geoscience themes mediated by the application of concept maps

Abstract

Concept maps (CM) have stood out today as a powerful tool in the learning process in several areas of knowledge and levels and teaching.The objective of this work was to apply CM as a didactic resource in the teaching-learning process in geoscience content. The study was carried out with 33 students from the 7th year of elementary school II at a private school in Natal, RN. The activities were developed through the following steps: I) thematic deepening (structure of the volcanoes and volcanic eruptions), II) familiarization with the MC, and, III) elaboration of the MC. The constructed maps were evaluated for morphological type (radial, linear and network), using the classification of Kinchin and Hay (2000). Based on the results observed in this study, there was a great occurrence of maps with a network structure (58%), which shows that students have significantly learned the topics covered. Through the data obtained, we found that the use of CM contributes to the development of skills and the ability of students to organize, relate and represent the knowledge that was built, thus being able to be used as a didactic resource in the teaching and learning process in geoscience themes.