Teaching Astrobiology. A Scientific and a Cultural Imperative

摘要

Astrobiology is a rapidly evolving discipline and, in order for its information to be passed on, it is urgent and necessary for Astrobiology to be integrated into the curricular domain, as well as into public and private scientific policies. The latter would contribute to the understanding of both the dynamic construction of scientific knowledge, and the spreading of science as a cultural imperative. This paper continues our previous work on Astrobiology education and public outreach. In this sense, we will present a curricular proposal on Astrobiology, which we would like to see integrated into the scientific areas of Portuguese secondary schools. To achieve this goal, it was necessary to select the most adequate and important key ideas for teaching, and to adapt the most complex scientific language to the school context. Finally, the right tools and strategies were created and developed to attain the proposed objectives. Several examples of these ideas, tools and strategies are discussed in the present article.