Abstract

NOGUEIRA, Anna Andressa Evangenlista et al. Paleontology in Elementary Education: aproposal for active learning methodologies applied in public schools in the metropolitan region of Belém-Pará, Brazil. Educação. Santa Maria [online]. 2024, vol.49, e83854.  Epub Sep 12, 2025. ISSN 1984-6444.  https://doi.org/10.5902/1984644483854.

The teaching of paleontology in the Metropolitan Region of Belém, Pará, Brazil, faces challenges in its dissemination and inclusion in basic education. Paleontology is a crucial science in understanding the origin and evolution of life and the Earth, being fundamental in stimulating curiosity, especially when applied with active teaching methodologies. This work stems from the educational actions of the Educafóssil Project, whose purpose is to popularize paleontology and geology using active methodologies to improve the teaching-learning process and strengthen the presence of these themes in the subjects of Science, Biology and Geography, encouraging their effective application in classrooms. The initiative includes lectures, workshops (fossil replicas, educational games and drawing), a mini-fossil exhibition and evaluation questionnaires. These tools are essential for collecting information on the impact of the project's initiatives, assessing students' knowledge and satisfaction with the subject and, fundamentally, enriching students' understanding and awareness of the importance of preserving fossils and their contribution to the Earth's bioevolutionary history. The results of this case study show that most of the activities applied had a satisfactory outcome and reveal that high school students show a high percentage of appropriation of paleontological knowledge compared to elementary school students.Therefore, the implementation of playful-pedagogical activities played an essential role in assessing the level of knowledge of these students in relation to paleontology, highlighting the importance of its inclusion into the elementary education curriculum.

Keywords : Paleontology; Fossil; Teaching.

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