Abstract:
This article is a critical reflection over the elements which emerged from a classroom project. The project aimed at analyzing how the History of Science could be used in the teaching of Physics so as to facilitate the learning of the concepts of Thermodynamics. In order to make the project possible to be held, activities took place within an estimate period of 120 days and involved the Physics, the History and the Composition teachers, as well as 30 students from the first grade of high school (9th year of education) from a private school in Porto Alegre - Brazil. Data were collected through activities accomplished by students, who were asked to make a written research about the invention and the development of the steam power, to read and to interpret texts and also to solve subjective and objective questions about the concepts dealt with. The results show that the use of History of Science contributes significantly to improve the understanding of the concepts of Thermodynamics, becoming then an important tool to understand the phenomena studied in Physics.
Keywords:
thermodynamics; history of science; high school.