The I Scientist”: Experience Report of the Project Carried out by Elementary School Students in the City of Feira Nova, Pernambuco, Brazil

Abstract

Scientific literacy is the ability to employ scientific knowledge to identify issues, acquire new knowledge, and draw conclusions based on scientific evidence. This report aims to present the experience of a project with elementary school students, and aims to understand the scientific work, and the role of the scientist in society. For that, all phases of a scientific investigation were experienced. A research problem was presented “to know if elementary school students from two schools in the city of Feira Nova, Pernambuco, Brazil, knew the biological role of soap and water in the fight against contagion by the new coronavirus”. Having exposed the problem, the concepts of hypothesis, proof or refutation of a hypothesis, methodological design, data collection and treatment and scientific writing were worked on. The partial results of this experience point to questions that prove what the literature on scientific literacy brings, where, according to our findings, more than 50% of our students, despite having formal classes in Natural Sciences and Biology, most of the time has no idea how science is done, how a scientist works, and how he arrives at evidence-based results. This result worries us, especially at a time when the denial of science presents itself as a problem of this century, which reinforces the need for the research group to continue this project, carrying out activities that allow students to build a critical view of reality, and the ability to align what is studied in the classroom with this reality of the world.