New Perspectives in Science Education

The present work aimed at discussing the use of technological tools as a mechanism of interdisciplinarity between mathematics, computation and problems inherent in civil engineering professionals. Undergraduate students in civil engineering study mathematics, computation, resistance of materials and structures in different disciplines, at different periods throughout the course. In this sense, there are common complaints about the lack of applicability of the disciplines that make up the basic cycle (mathematics, computation and resistance of materials, for example) in the disciplines of the professional cycle (structures) or in the job market itself, later. From a real situation, represented by the problem of deflection of a beam, the students proposed to perform the mathematical modelling of the problem in question and to verify the conditions under which analytical solutions could be found. Then, conjectured everyday situations where analytical solutions did not represent reality and modifications in the hypotheses of the original problem were made. At this stage of the project, it was necessary to include numerical simulations in order to obtain the solutions to the proposed problem, now more robust. In order to complement the whole study, laboratory experiments were carried out, in which simulated situations common to the civil engineer with students still in the second year of graduation. Throughout the process, active methodologies, the use of technological devices and the entire relationship between the actors involved, whether students, teacher, computer, smartphones and materials available in the civil engineering laboratory were discussed. It is concluded that the use of active methodologies can contribute significantly in the process of teaching learning, strengthening the relation of the student with the knowledge that is being acquired during his training in a graduation course.

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