PIBID INTERVENTION REPORT: THE IMPACT OF INTERACTIVE SIMULATIONS ON THE MOTIVATION OF HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS IN PAU DOS FERROS/RN

Abstract

The teaching of chemistry in Brazil faces structural and epistemological obstacles, particularly with regard to the abstraction of concepts such as balancing chemical equations. Within the scope of the Institutional Program for Teaching Initiation Scholarships (PIBID), this study reports on a pedagogical intervention conducted with 30 11th-grade students at the Doutor José Fernandes de Melo State School in Pau dos Ferros, Rio Grande do Norte. The objective was to evaluate the use of the PhET Interactive Simulations virtual simulator as a didactic transposition tool to reduce abstraction and promote student participation. The methodology consisted of a dialogic lecture followed by a gamified activity, in which students, divided into groups, solved challenges at progressive levels of difficulty. The results indicated that 100% of the students considered that the activity facilitated the retention of the content, while 80% reported an immediate increase in motivation to study the subject. The simulation allowed for a connection between the symbolic, microscopic, and macroscopic levels, which are fundamental to understanding the Law of Conservation of Mass. It is concluded that the integration of virtual simulators demystifies the complexity of chemistry, transforming the fear of error into investigative curiosity. For the PIBID scholarship recipients, the experience reaffirmed the importance of pedagogical innovation in initial teacher education and in the consolidation of a more inclusive and contextualized teaching approach.