In the light of Science in Early Childhood Education: Challenging children's imagination to unravel optical phenomena

Abstract

This work presents an analysis of the visitation of children from 4 to 6 years old to the exhibition “To the Light of Science in Early Childhood Education”, promoted by the Universidade Federal do Pampa, based on a proposal for the dissemination and popularization of science on the theme of Light. The proposal was part of the celebration of the International Year of Light (2015), having received support from the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) for its realization on two campuses: Bagé (in 2016) and Caçapava do Sul (in 2017). We describe in this work the thirteen stations of the exhibition circuit, analyzing how the children, accompanied by their teachers and university monitors, interacted with the experiments and artifacts, as well as their ability to express scientific concepts related to the theme, such as: reflection, refraction, light energy, light and shadow and others. As, at the time, the children still did not master writing and reading, the data on the visitation experience were gathered through drawings and comments made by them after having covered the entire exhibition circuit. The enchantment and joy during the visit to the exhibition left the certainty that it is possible to make scientific knowledge accessible to children of this age group and that curiosity is the most important element to be explored during an interactive exhibition, as they remain attentive and receptive to what challenges their imagination.