The paper is part of the discussions about virtual environments as a space for communication, interaction and collaborative work for teaching and learning. This last point will be deepened, highlighting the educational and scientific communities involved with online learning and development, particularly those related to geosciences. It is intended to discuss how social interactions networked and digital cultural tools (DCT) can contribute to the development of online commu- nities, as well as presenting the results of the site Virtual Geosciences (VG), which aims to be collaboration space. VG provides the sharing of digital media and space for interaction and dialogue, enabling expand the relations between stakeholders, kno- wledge construction and catalyze the creation of new communities and opportunities for geosciences, as well as contribute to the discussions about communities in cyberspace as part of a cyclic process between cultural changes and new DCT development.
Full article Related workThe Química Nova Interativa (QNInt) portal was launched in 2009 by the Brazilian Chemical Society (SBQ) to offer free quality content for broad audiences. QNInt provides peer-reviewed articles from SBQ journals on science & society, chemical concepts, classroom activities and educational research. With 3,000,000 visits, QNInt also offers a unique library of interactive molecules. In the International Year of Chemistry QNInt served for distributing pH kits and registering data from IUPAC's Global Water Experiment, yielding Brazil the largest share of the global pH data set. The portal performance makes QNInt a valuable resource for connecting science to education.
Full article Related workMetabolic Pathways Visualization Skill Test: Development and Evaluation. External Representations (ERs) have been reported as important aids in Biochemistry learning process, and it is quite often having ERs to help better describe complex biochemical phenomena. When introduced to the biochemistry, students are also introduced to a whole new world of ERs, used to represent processes that happen at a molecular level. The construction of models is based in abstraction and logical reasoning, and difficulties in understanding such models seem hamper to understand biochemical contents. This article describes the development and implementation of a Metabolic Pathways Visualization Skill diagnoses test. The results obtained shows that the developed tool can be useful to help instructors to diagnosis their students’ visualization skills related to the metabolic pathways.
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Department of Biochemistry and Tissue Biology
University of Campinas
