A Proposal of Potentially Meaningful Material for Teaching of Vector Mechanics

One of the difficulties presented in teaching mechanical vector is the visualization and interactivity issue. The use of static resources, such as lecture classes and the traditional media used, most often, does not allow a satisfactory teaching and learning of the content. An effective learning of the content is important for the engineers during the training, but the methodological alternatives that can provide the assimilation of the content in the easiest way, in most of the times are not available in the courses for teachers.

GeoGeabra software, which is a dynamic geometric environment that allows the interactive exploration of algebraic and geometric concepts, was used in the development and proposal of didactic solutions for disciplines in General Mechanical Engineering courses, developing activities in the form of computation tools, so-called potentially meaningful material. It was observed as necessary conditions in MLT―Meaningful Learning Theory, theoretical basis that contextualizes that new knowledge starts from the interaction with the previous cognitive structure of the individual knowledge.

Nowadays, computerization was not contested anymore, because the first contact with the computer technologies came from childhood; however, it was observed that lately technological insertions came from previous experiences at school.

This paper presents didactic solutions to the Vector Mechanics subject, which aims to teach the calculation and the representation of the acting forces on a given particle in space. It is about developed and applied activities in GeoGebra software, called potentially meaningful materials. The whole proposal was based on MLT―Meaningful Learning Theory, proposed by David Ausubel, in order to contribute to a more efficient learning in general disciplines of engineering courses.

Article by Bruno Nunes Myrrha Ribeiro,et al,from Brazil.

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