Proposal for a Field Activity in Geomorphology for Semiarid Landscape of the Eastern Portion of Northeastern Brazil: a Cognitive-Interpretative Guide based on Geoforms

Abstract

Geomorphology teaching needs more tools and instruments that help students recognize the complexity of the elements that make up the physical landscape. For didactical and geomorphological cartography purposes, the construction of lists containing types of morphological units and their illustrations has been a classic tool for identifying and fixing content. The objective of this work was to propose a teaching/survey activity mediated by observation of geoforms in the field, to confront the typologies applied to geomorphological units for the north-eastern sector of the Brazilian semi-arid region, and to point out how observation in loco, socialized between groups of learners, favors a more complex and realistic reading of morphogenesis. The activity was based on constructing a fieldwork itinerary, assisted by a guide list to accompany the points visited in the field. In this, 22 morphological units were identified and illustrated by realistic models created in an AI environment. In addition, morphologies were chosen for representation at a scale of 1:10,000 or larger, suitable for detailed geomorphological surveys. The final stage proposed the construction of interpretative worksheets for the field visit points, in which it is possible to confront the descriptions offered by the literature and the models created by AI with the narratives and authentic images of the landscape produced by the learners. It is believed that the cognitive-interpretative activities conducted in the field, guided by the perception, identification, and sharing of variations and inadequacies found between the current taxonomic proposals and the experience of landscape observation constitute didactic tools that facilitate teaching-learning in geomorphology