TAIOBA, AN UNCONVENTIONAL FOOD PLANT IN A VIRTUAL SCHOOL EXPEDITION.
biodiversity; Ethnobiology; digital game.
In the researching for innovative strategies, the research project incorporates the game as an element of didactic potential. The teaching of biodiversity is approached in an expedition to the local culture. It is highlighting and valuing ethnobiological aspects such as the name of the city Taiobeiras. It is a proposal for investigative media on biodiversity, cultivation, and consumption of non-conventional food plants - PANC, with an initial focus on the taioba Xanthosoma sagittifolium (L) Schotte.In an investigative methodological practice that values the local knowledge, students find in the game paths to build knowledge that starts with scientific illustration, actively, and culminates in the proposed challenges inside the final product: a two-dimensional – 2D digital game, here called TAIOPANC Expedition with interaction and cooperation. It demarcates species already forgotten, but of common incidence and encourage their recovery. The results validate the importance of the research itself as a valorization of local knowledge and the possibility of using educational games more aligned to commercial versions. As the game can be adapted to other contexts, it opens a range of possibilities for teaching Biodiversity and new approaches in Natural Sciences.