Ensino de física de partículas no ensino médio utilizando role-playing game

Abstract

The development of the standard model of particles in the 20th century represented a milestone in the history of science, which is why particle physics remains an area of great relevance for several fields of study and application. Despite its importance, elementary particle physics is little explored in topics of Modern Physics in High School. It is likely that the reason for this is the complexity of terms and concepts used in the area, which makes it difficult to understanding of the content by the student. In order to overcome this problem, we propose the use of RPG (Role-Playing Game) notions in the application of a gamified dynamics as a complement to a traditional class on particle physics, aiming at a creative approach that allows a clear understanding of the displayed content. The RPG is a narrative game that, despite requiring the understanding of a set of rules and elements, manages to easily captivate the player, gaining their interest and commitment. The proposed pedagogical approach is divided into two stages, carried out on different days. The first consists of a traditional class introducing the basic concepts of particle physics. The second stage consists of the application of gamified dynamics, in which the teacher plays the role of master in an RPG session. A simplified RPG system was developed in which each particle was associated with a high fantasy entity/species (RPG-HF). For example, the leptons correspond to elves. Several phenomena associated with particles can be represented from the notions of RPG-HF. For example, elves (electrons) and poor-goblins (positrons) tend to annihilate each other, transforming in gamma rays (represented by phantoms). The attributes inherent to each class in RPG, such as dexterity and constitution, can be associated with the properties fundamentals of particles, such as electric charge and spin. The application of the proposal took place in a class of the State School of Professional Education Joaquim Nogueira, from which we sought to evaluate the students’ experience through a questionnaire.