Investigating the energy behind food

Abstract

From studies on nutrition education, it was found that school plays a key role in changing eating habits. Thus, well-designed educational proposals linked to the investigative bias, within the context of nutrition, enable a better understanding of the relationship between the food consumed and the energy required for the performance of cellular functions and, thus, leads to learning and encourages healthier lifestyle practices. Based on that, an investigative didactic sequence (ISD) was developed, with degree II of freedom, which aims to provide the knowledge of energetic and functional biomolecules, promoting the appropriation of knowledge about the connection between the energy provided by food and performance in physical activities, within normal physiological conditions and in obesity. Although it was not possible to apply the ISD dent's protagonism, the present work brings a proposal for ISD that discusses in a different and interesting way the complex theme that relates to the function of cellular respiration and energy metabolism of cells. The proposal is based on a problematization to develop hypotheses, followed by data collection for problem-solving, data systematization in order to refute or not the initial conjectures, and the elaboration of a product about this theme. With this, it is expected that the understanding of the content by students occurs in a significant way and that they can from their previous knowledge elaborate their own ideas about energy, food, and physical activity.