Science and mathematics of the sun and gnomon

Abstract

In this work we seek to stimulate the teaching - learning process of some basic mathematical concepts through simple observations of the world we live in. For instance those that were made even before Galileo, who aimed the first telescope at the sky more than 400 years ago and ushered in a new era for science. Experiments such as investigating the projection of the solar shadow of a gnomon, observing the direction and size of the shadow to determine the local meridian, construction of the wind rose, measurement of heights and sizes of inaccessible objects, measurement of the circumference of the earth, construction of sundials, etc. The reproduction of these experiments can motivate both teachers and students to adquire the understanding of the Earth's movements and the importance of the Sun, and its multidisciplinary character, generating a taste for the discoveries of science and mathematics. The execution of such experiments can contribute to the learning of measures, angles, distances, bisectors, parallelism, perpendicularity, circumference, triangle, similarity, rule of three, trigonometry, etc. Our purpose is in line with the skills, competences and guiding axes touted by the National Common Curricular Base as possibilities of articulation between the areas of knowledge, regarding representation, communication, research, understanding and sociocultural context.