Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / Most of the features are displayed by complex organisms results of multifactorial inheritance, such as skin color in humans. This study aimed to investigate the high school students conceptions about multifactorial inheritance and, based on the information collected, develop educational materials that promote the application of genetic concepts in everyday matters. Participated in this study 48 students from two high school classes, enrolled in two public schools in Santa Maria / RS and São Vicente do Sul / RS. The survey was conducted in three stages called application of pre-test, didactic approach and implementation of the post-test. We develop a game, a didactic model and a hypertext is recommended for high school classes. The game and the teaching model was applied by the researcher and indicate their use for classes that have studied basics of monogenic and multifactorial inheritance. The applied materials were evaluated as motivation and use of genetic concepts. The evaluation by students and teachers indicated that the proposal is challenging and useful for genetic education with good applicability to review concepts. Hypertext was developed in three versions, according to the student's reality, being a material useful for situations where you have little time to teaching content to be a practical and easy handling means. To make it more interesting and interactive activity is recommended to be done beyond reading a discussion so that students and teachers can share ideas on the subject under study. Students from both groups showed an increase in the proportion of correct answers after the application of the didactic sequence, this improvement was most notable for the students in the class had a low rate of correct answers in the pre-test which had not studied the subject multifactorial inheritance ( class 2). / A maioria das características apresentadas pelos organismos complexos são resultados de heranças multifatoriais, como por exemplo, a cor da pele nos seres humanos. Este trabalho teve como objetivo investigar as concepções de alunos do Ensino Médio sobre herança multifatorial e, com base nas informações coletadas, desenvolver materiais didáticos que favoreçam as aplicações de conceitos de genética em assuntos do cotidiano. Participaram deste trabalho 48 alunos de duas turmas de Ensino Médio, matriculados em duas escolas públicas localizadas em Santa Maria/RS e São Vicente do Sul/RS. A pesquisa foi realizada em três etapas denominadas aplicação do pré-teste, abordagem didática e aplicação do pós-teste. Desenvolvemos um jogo, um modelo didático e um hipertexto sendo recomendados para turmas de Ensino Médio. O jogo e o modelo didático foram aplicados pela pesquisadora e indicamos a sua utilização para turmas que já estudaram conceitos básicos de herança monogênica e multifatorial. Os materiais aplicados foram avaliados conforme motivação e utilização de conceitos de genética. A avaliação por alunos e professores indicou que a proposta é desafiadora e útil para o ensino de genética, com boa aplicabilidade para revisar conceitos. O hipertexto foi desenvolvido em três versões, de acordo com a realidade do aluno, sendo um material útil para situações em que se tenha pouco tempo para o ensino do conteúdo por ser um meio prático e de fácil manipulação. Para tornar a atividade mais interessante e interativa recomenda-se que seja feita além da leitura uma discussão para que os alunos e professor possam compartilhar ideias sobre o tema em estudo. Os alunos de ambas as turmas apresentaram aumento na proporção de respostas corretas após a aplicação da sequência didática, essa melhora foi mais notável para os alunos da turma que teve baixo índice de acertos no pré-teste a qual não havia estudado o tema herança multifatorial (turma 2).

This thesis explores lower secondary students’ meaning-making of epigenetic visual representations within and between biological organization levels. Data obtained from five focus group discussions where students indicated and reasoned about eight epigenetic visual representations were explored. By analyzing students’ interactions with multiple visual representations, and the impact of linking and reasoning patterns on their meaning-making, the research contributes insights to the learning of epigenetics.  Epigenetics, which is gaining rapid importance in emerging biology curricula, is communicated at different biological organization levels, and serves as the meaning-making context explored in the thesis. A compelling biology didactics context, where students are required to reason with multiple representations depicted within and between organizational levels to make meaning about epigenetics. The thesis uncovers three primary findings. First, four linking patterns in students’ meaning-making across and between organizational levels using various visual representations are illuminated. Second, five visual characteristics that influence students’ linking within and between levels were discerned. Third, students’ meaning-making processes were observed to emerge through four phases, which involved form and function attributes of the visual representations, and the transfer of scientific ideas across representations. / <p>Article 1 published in thesis as manuscript, now published.</p>