Como adultos interpretam desenhos e calculam volumes de sólidos construídos por pequenos cubos

Abstract

This report deals description of some partial results drawn from a wider research work conducted with students of the last year secondary school and with pre-service and in-service teachers, regarding the improvement of the ability of geometric visualization. Information is present based on the answers to a number of questions dealing with the interpretation of the drawings and the measure of volume of solids built with piled-up small cubes. The question address the differences that might exists between the actual amount of cubes necessary to the determination of the volume of the solid and the amount of cubes which are visible in the drawings. The performance of the students has shown to be equivalent to that presented in the literature covered. However, answers provided by students as well as by pre- and in-service teachers, point out that faced with situations similar to those found in elementary grades’ textbooks, they may and probably, will, present difficulties in interpreting the drawings. Further, the results point out that pre-service and in-service teachers are not aware of the conventions implicit in the drawings used to back-up the volume measure process, besides showing other kinds of deficiencies regarding several elementary mathematical concepts.