Master's Degree

 

1. Mandatory Disciplines

 

Electromagnetism (4 Credit Units, 60 Credit Hours)

Syllabus: Laws of electromagnetism. Electric field and magnetic field in vacuum and in matter. Maxwell's equations and electromagnetic waves. Electromagnetism and special relativity.

 

Supervised Internship (4 Credit Units, 60 Credit Hours)

Syllabus: This is, in practice, monitoring the process of implementing a didactic strategy that should generate the educational product of the MNPEF. This follow-up should contain observations made by the advisor during one or more stages of that implementation. It does not aim to instruct the teacher how to teach physics classes. The idea is that the master's student implements some innovative strategy in the teaching of Physics with the advisor as a participating observer, at least in some moments of this implementation. Strictly speaking, it does not constitute a discipline but, for the curriculum, it is equivalent to a mandatory discipline with four credits. It is a mandatory subject in the CAPES guidelines for the Professional Master's in Education.

 

Contemporary Physics (4 Credit Units, 60 Credit Hours)

Syllabus: This course aims to address a topic of contemporary physics chosen by the hub. Examples of these topics are: Special and General Relativity, Cosmology, Astrophysics, Particle Physics, Condensed Matter Physics, Nanophysics, Spintronics, Complex Systems, Biophysics, among others.

 

Theoretical Foundations in Teaching and Learning (2 Credit Units, 30 Credit Hours)

Syllabus: This course aims to familiarize physics teachers in service with basic notions of theories of learning and teaching as a reference system for their teaching practices and analysis of issues related to the teaching of physics at high and elementary school levels. Early behaviorist theories (Watson, Guthrie and Thorndike). Skinner's behaviorism. Gagné's neo-behaviorism. The cognitivism of Piaget, Bruner, Vigotsky, Ausubel and Kelly. The humanism of Rogers and Novak. The Johnson-Laird theory of mental models. Vergnaud's theory of conceptual fields. Freire's pedagogies. Game-based learning.

 

Milestones in Physics Development (2 Credit Units, 30 Credit Hours)

Syllabus: Approach to topics in the History and Epistemology of Physics in the light of the main milestones in the history of Physics. Discussion of concrete episodes in the history of physics in which components of philosophy can be explored alongside other dimensions (conceptual, technical, social, economic, political) present in the production of knowledge in physics. Suggested topics: origins of mechanics - Copernican revolution; creation of thermodynamics; electromagnetism and conflict between remote action and continuity action; origins of special relativity; origins of quantum theory; Big Science and elementary particle models; nuclear physics, atomic bomb and peaceful uses of nuclear energy; cosmological models; historical development of models on the nature of light; origins of solid state physics, transistor and laser.

 

Quantum Mechanics (4 Credit Units, 60 Credit Hours)

Syllabus: Conceptual and formal foundations of Quantum Mechanics. Superposition principle. States and observables. Measurement. Systems with bivalent variables. Systems in one dimension. Systems in three dimensions (hydrogen atom, angular momentum). Entanglement, inconsistency and quantum information. Applications.

 

Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics (4 Credit Units, 60 Credit Hours)

Syllabus: Thermodynamics: heat, work and internal energy; Thermal machines; entropy and second law of thermodynamics; Gibbs formulation of thermodynamics (equations of state and thermodynamic potentials); thermodynamic stability; applications. Principles of statistical physics: Boltzmann entropy and microchanonic representation (simple examples); canonical representation (examples: monoatomic ideal gas, two-level systems, diatomic molecules, Einstein solid, electromagnetic radiation, paramagnetism); large canonical representation (ideal fermions and bosons; photon gas; metals and semiconductors; Bose-Einstein condensation); Ising model, van der Waals gas; fluctuations and Brownian motion.

 

2. Elective Disciplines

 

Computational Activities for High School and Elementary School (4 Credit Units, 60 Credit Hours)

Syllabus: Computer modeling and simulation of physical events. Data acquisition and analysis in didactic experiments. Availability and use of teaching materials on the network. Strategies for using computational resources in Physics Education.

 

Experimental Activities for Secondary and Elementary Schools (4 Credit Units, 60 Credit Hours)

Syllabus: The role of experimental activities and the science laboratory in the teaching and learning process: conceptual and methodological aspects. The objectives of the experimental activity and its implementation in formal and non-formal learning spaces. The different forms of experimental activities. The differentiation between real and virtual laboratory activities and the role of modeling. Data collection and analysis using multiple resources.

 

Physics in Elementary Education in a Multidisciplinary Perspective (4 Credit Units, 60 Credit Hours)

Syllabus: Physics topics addressed relating their concepts and phenomena with Chemistry, Biology and Geoscience for a multidisciplinary work in Natural Sciences. Suggested topics: transformations and conservation; atoms and chemical bonds, characteristics and constitution; astronomy and cosmology; heat and temperature; environmental issues.

 

Teaching and Learning Processes and Sequences on High School Physics (4 Credit Units, 60 Credit Hours)

Syllabus: This course should have an applied character, that is, its focus will be directly on the teaching and learning processes in the classroom. For example, the preparation of a tutorial based on the identification of students' difficulties in learning a particular topic of Classical or Modern and Contemporary Physics; the construction of a teaching-learning sequence (TLS - Teaching Learning Sequence); elaboration of a Potentially Significant Teaching Unit (UEPS).