Maker culture and educational robotics in physics teaching: developing an automated traffic light in high school

In this study we explore the didactic potential of educational robotics for the construction of an interdisciplinary project for teaching Physics and teaching Mathematics, in the context of basic education. It is an account of interdisciplinary experience in which, through the pedagogy of projects, the use of robots in the construction of timed traffic lights (one for pedestrians and one for cars) was evidenced. This proposal involved students from the 1st, 2nd and 3rd years of high school, aged between 13 and 18 years, from the State School Álvaro Paes, located in the city of Coité do Nóia-AL. The project emerged from the initiative of teachers of Physics and Mathematics, in conjunction with the Robotics Group of the State Network of Alagoas, and in this sense took the concept of kinematics. The activities were developed on Saturdays during the academic year of 2017. It was evident, from this experience, that the contextualization of the classes through robotics projects, make the classes motivating, since the students were involved with the possibility of creating, from the concepts of Physics and Mathematics, in the moments, involving and bringing the subjects closer to a scientific practice. As an educational product, an article was prepared with an account of the practice of a robotics project developed in the classroom. Initially, the training of work teams for the construction and development of tasks in class was carried out. Then the students participated in robotics classes, understanding its fundamentals and its application within the disciplines of Physics and Mathematics, introducing the subject of traffic lights for the Traffic Light.