“Lice hunt” educational game: how to prevent pediculosis through play

• Autor(a) principal: Bogéa, Tami Pestana
• Data de Publicação: 2020
• Outros Autores: Araújo, Artur, Silva Cardoso, Aline Aparecida, Vieira de Melo, Jonathan, Teixeira da Rocha, Rebeca Fernandes, Pereira dos Santos, Ludmila Lorraine
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Revista de Ensino de Ciências e Matemática - REnCiMa
• Texto Completo: https://revistapos.cruzeirodosul.edu.br/rencima/article/view/1843
• topic: pediculose; ensino fundamental; jogo analógico; Caça-Piolhos; metodologias ativas; pediculosis; elementary school; board game; Lice Hunt; active learning methodologies

Pediculosis is a parasitic infection commonly found in Brazilian school communities. Despite campaigns for controlling head lice, prevalence rates remain high. This work introduces the educational game “Lice Hunt” as part of a learning sequence designed to inform about lice biology and prevention of pediculosis in a playful way. Thus, 4th and 5th grade students from a public elementary school participated in lecture classes and workshops as well as played “Lice Hunt”. We verified that the game encouraged good students’ involvement and promoted learning of topics discussed. Lack of student interest was also observed. This was possibly due to age and/or difficulties in reading and understanding questions. Besides facilitating learning about pediculosis, this game could be a tool in detecting literacy problems when incorporated into an interdisciplinary strategy involving Science and Portuguese teachers. When developing or using games in Education, it is important to evaluate the quality of such products to assure that they are useful in learning, justifying its application. Therefore, research that focuses on developing methods to evaluate the efficacy of educational games as active learning methodology are particularly encouraged