Between cosmic time and human time: an interdisciplinary experience in building a timeline in high school

Abstract

Objective: To analyze the potential and limits of an interdisciplinary practice based on the construction of a scaled timeline, integrating Physics, Mathematics, and Geography in High School. Experience report: Developed with first-year high school students from a private school in Santos/SP, the activity consisted of the collective construction of a scaled timeline representing approximately 14 billion years, from the Big Bang to historical events, with students organized into groups and assigned roles. The proposal promoted the articulation between different areas of knowledge and enhanced the understanding of temporal scales. However, learning occurred unevenly among students, revealing difficulties in interpreting proportions, conceptual articulation, and equitable participation, as well as the need for continuous teacher mediation. These results indicate that interdisciplinary practices do not guarantee meaningful learning by themselves, depending on specific pedagogical conditions. Final considerations: It is concluded that the proposal has relevant pedagogical potential by integrating different fields of knowledge and supporting the understanding of abstract concepts. However, its effectiveness depends on factors such as pedagogical planning, organization of collaborative work, and institutional conditions, highlighting interdisciplinarity as a practice marked by tensions, limits, and possibilities in the school context.