What elementary school students think about science

Abstract

This article is an excerpt from a master's research that focuses science perception surveys, which, nationwide, are applied to the adult population. However, knowing what the younger Brazilians thinks about science is increasingly arousing interest. The research, of a qualitative and exploratory nature, whose objective was to verify the perceptions about Science of elementary school students from schools in southern São Paulo, used as a data collection instrument a closed questionnaire adapted from the international project The Relevance of Science Education. The results showed that students have a positive view of science, being able to relate classroom knowledge to their daily lives, taking care of health or improving people's lives. However, they do not believe that science can solve all problems and that the population should participate more in certain matters, such as environmental ones. Despite the positive attitudes, students in many countries, as well as those in the present research, do not feel motivated to follow a career as a scientist and have a certain distrust of this professional, so that further studies must be carried out to understand the reasons for this distancing.