SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS AND INQUIRY-BASED TEACHING: BUILDING KNOWLEDGE AT A KNOWLEDGE FAIR

Abstract

This study aimed to evaluate a pedagogical practice's effectiveness in promoting teaching that values students' local realities, encourages their autonomy, and empowers them to address issues related to Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 16 in secondary education. This practice, based on Inquiry-Based Learning (IE) and the National Common Curricular Base (BNCC), fosters Scientific Literacy (SC). A didactic sequence was applied to produce papers for presentation at a Knowledge Fair held at a high school in Paulista, Pernambuco. Five groups of eight students were involved, each with a topic related to SDG 16, culminating in a single post-event paper. The proposal was evaluated by observing the learning acquired through the process of constructing the projects and their presentations, conceptually, attitudinally, and procedurally. Furthermore, a final written report on the individual training process was considered. Four of the five projects were produced, three of which were satisfactory. Of the 33 texts submitted by the students, 29 presented positive feedback on the proposal, while 15 were negative. Of the latter, 14 offered positive feedback beyond what was previously mentioned. Furthermore, the results of the combined work were submitted, approved, and presented at several external fairs hosted by various institutions, demonstrating the quality of the work. Therefore, we conclude that the proposal proved effective in meeting the BNCC skills, promoting AC, autonomy, and student leadership in the production of knowledge to mitigate contextual problems through EI.