TOPICS OF ASTRONOMY IN THE CURRICULUM OF DEGREE IN BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES

Abstract

Astronomy content is taught in Elementary School Final Years in the Science subject, by professionals graduated in Scientific Degrees, such as Biological Sciences. In this context, the initial formation of these teachers is questioned, but investigations about the curriculum of these courses for the teaching of Astronomy are scarce. With that, the objective of this work is to analyze the curricula of the Licentiate courses in Biological Sciences of the Federal Universities of Brazil about the contents of Astronomy. For this, an exploratory study was carried out that uses documental research as a method, through the search for keywords related to Astronomy, in the Pedagogical Projects of the Courses. The subjects and contents of Astronomy found were classified according to the Content Analysis of Bardin. We analyzed 55 institutions out of 61 Brazilian Federal Universities that have a degree in Biological Sciences. Of these, only 18 have Astronomy content in their curriculum. In all, were found 23 subjects, and only four have a menu composed exclusively of Astronomy content. Finally, the present study corroborates the hypothesis that Biology courses neglect astronomical matters and collaborate with the discussions about the initial formation of Science teachers for the teaching of Astronomy.