TITLE:
On the Path of Poisonous Animals: A High School Game for Approaching Venomous Animals, Biotechnology Potential and Biodiversity
AUTHORS:
Juliana M. Diniz, Ana Oliveira Carvalho, Rosane M. S. Meirelles, Helena C. Castro
KEYWORDS:
Game, Venomous Animals, High School, Biodiversity, Biotechnology Potential
JOURNAL NAME:
Creative Education,
Vol.12 No.5,
May
31,
2021
ABSTRACT: Some animals present venom, which is a mixture of several molecules used as a biological weapon against natural enemies or preys. Several of these animals are part of the huge Brazilian biodiversity and these venoms have a huge biotechnological potential as feasible natural drugs for treatment of important diseases such as thrombosis. Since educational games are described as auxiliary tools for teaching complex themes, in this work we constructed a school game about venomous animals including protective instructions when in contact with some of them. The purpose of our game named “On the path of venomous animals” was to teach about this theme. It was constructed based on previous concepts of Brazilian high school students and approaches important topics (e.g.how to act when bitten by snakes) presented in a board format with cards containing the questions to be answered about different situations (luck or mischance). The game requests teacher’s participation, and involves simulations of everyday life situations as well as the risk of encountering a poisonous animal. We tested the game with high school students aged from 16 to 18 years and despite most of them did not know much about these animals they were very interested on them. The use of this playful game as an educational instrument may allow learning about biodiversity whereas enhanced their perception of venom biotechnology potentiality.