BEYOND THE STAGE: EXPLORING CONNECTIONS BETWEEN THEATER AND SCIENCE EDUCATION IN CONEDU RESEARCH Clécio Danilo Dias da Silva, Lúcia Maria de Almeida, Daniele Bezerra dos Santos

Abstract

The use of theater in the context of Science Education has gained prominence nowadays, since it offers a playful and attractive approach to transmit scientific concepts, making them more accessible to elementary and high school students. Given the relevance and growing adoption of theater in the educational process, there is a need to investigate scientific research that explores this connection. Therefore, considering the National Education Congress (CONEDU) as one of the main events in the Brazilian scenario for the dissemination of educational studies, this work aimed to analyze the productions presented at CONEDU related to the use of theater in Science Education. For this, the annals of five editions of CONEDU (2018 - 2022) were examined, searching for all references to the theme "Theater and Science Education". A total of 17,235 works were published throughout these five editions of the event. However, only seven of these productions addressed the theme of theater in the context of Science Education. Of these, five explored issues related to Chemistry, one dealt with Biology and another with Physics. Despite the small number of studies found, it is possible to infer that this number tends to increase in the next editions of CONEDU, as debates on this topic spread in primary schools. This trend is driven by the recognition of the contribution of theater to the teaching and learning process of Natural Sciences, as well as to the development of critical and reflective training of students.