Impacts of an extension project on teacher training in Physics: LABIDEX and the extension policy at UFSC

Abstract

 In Brazil, university extension has its roots in the beginning of the 20th century, although it was institutionalized only in the 1930s. We present its history, which evolved from a welfare and positiist conception to one which is emancipatory. Brazilian political rollercoasters influenced university extension, culminating, in 2018, with the implementation of the undergraduate extension, demanding undergraduate courses be composed of extension activities, in at least 10% of their workload. At UFSC, one of the longest running extension projects, the Instrumentation, Demonstration and Exploration Laboratory (Labidex), has been a fundamental part of the Physics teachers education. In semi-structured interviews, a group of graduates who work in secondary education indicated their perceptions about the project's influence on their training and on the training they provide to their current students. As a result, it is possible to infer the power of extension activities such as Labidex for student permanence and success and the multiplication of appreciation for science in secondary education students.