Renato P. Dos Santos

Lutheran University of Brazil | ULBRA · Program in Mathematics and Science Teaching

Categorical Longevity is introduced as a computational systems biology approach which applies category theory to unify and formalize the activity, metrics, and interventions of biological systems in addressing the accelerated multisystem decline characteristic of human aging. By providing a comprehensive and computation-ready framework, this method...

Health Agents are introduced as the concept of a personalized AI health advisor overlay for continuous health monitoring (e.g. 1000x/minute) medical-grade smartwatches and wearables for “healthcare by app” instead of “sickcare by appointment.” Individuals can customize the level of detail in the information they view. Health Agents “speak” natural...

Background: The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into daily life, particularly through chatbots utilizing natural language processing (NLP), presents both revolutionary potential and unique challenges. This research is motivated by the intricacies of human-computer interaction within the context of conversational AI, focusing on the role...

A second Linguistic Turn is proposed to study the preponderance of formal language configuring the technological infrastructure, and the implication of this for meaning construal. Such a second movement extends the initial Linguistic Turn's focus on natural language to formal languages such as mathematics, physics, computer code, and genAI LLMs (ge...

Health Agents are introduced as the concept of a personalized AI health advisor overlay for continuous health monitoring (e.g. 1000x/minute) medical-grade smartwatches and wearables for "healthcare by app" instead of "sickcare by appointment." Individuals can customize the level of detail in the information they view. Health Agents "speak" natural...

Background: In the contemporary educational landscape, technology has the power to drive innovative pedagogical practices. Overcoming the resistance of teachers and students to adopting new methods and technologies is a challenge that needs to be addressed. Objectives: To evaluate the effectiveness of ChatGPT as a co-advisor in research projects an...

This research delves into the comparative advantages of Generative AI chatbots (GenAIbots)-ChatGPT, Bing Chat, Bard, and Claude-in the context of Chemistry education, framed within a constructivist perspective. Our primary objective was to identify which of these four AI tools is more effective as a virtual tutor to enhance Chemistry learning. Empl...

Recientemente en Brasil, se ha homologado un documento normativo denominado Base Nacional Común Curricular que enfatiza los contenidos mínimos que deben trabajarse en las escuelas desde la Educación Infantil hasta la etapa de Educación Secundaria. Además, vinculado a esto, se ha propuesto y homologado la Base Nacional Común para la Formación de Pro...

The advancement in generative AI could be boosted with more accessible mathematics. Beyond human-AI chat, large language models (LLMs) are emerging in programming, algorithm discovery, and theorem proving, yet their genomics application is limited. This project introduces Math Agents and mathematical embedding as fresh entries to the "Moore's Law o...

This study investigates the potential of ChatGPT and Bing Chat, advanced conversational AIs, as “objects-to-think-with,” resources that foster reflective and critical thinking, and concept comprehension in enhancing STEM education, using a constructionist theoretical framework. A single-case study methodology was used to analyze extensive interacti...

AI Math Agents are introduced as a novel ontological emergence for the creation of the digital mathematical infrastructure, to explicitly extend human intelligence. Mathematics (the elaboration of mathematical structures in the world) is crucial but stuck in non-evaluable formats. Further scientific progress is not possible by advance in computing...

The rise of AI has brought remarkable advancements in education, with AI models demonstrating their ability to analyse and provide instructive solutions to complex problems. This study compared and analysed the responses of four Generative AI-powered chatbots (GenAIbots) - ChatGPT-3.5, ChatGPT-4, Bing Chat, and Bard - within the constructivist theo...

This study explores the potential of Generative AI chatbots (GenAIbots) such as ChatGPT and Bing Chat, in Chemistry education, within a constructionist theoretical framework. A single-case study methodology was used to analyse extensive interaction logs between students and both AI systems in simulated Chemistry learning experiences. The results hi...

This study investigates the potential of ChatGPT and Bing Chat, advanced conversational AIs, as "objects-to-think-with," resources that foster reflective and critical thinking, and concept comprehension in enhancing STEM education, using a constructionist theoretical framework. A single-case study methodology was used to analyse extensive interacti...

Background: In the current context, numerous technologies are available, and access to information is facilitated to all who have access to the Internet. Education 4.0 emerged as a response to the need to meet the demands that will undoubtedly arise with the way society has been developing in the direction of the so-called Innovation Society. Objec...

Quantum matter (novel phases of matter at zero temperature with exotic properties) is a growing field with applications in its own domain, and in providing foundational support to quantum sciences fields more generally. The ability to characterize and manipulate matter at the smallest scales continues to advance in fundamental ways. This review pro...

Quantum neurobiology is concerned with potential quantum effects operating in the brain and the application of quantum information science to neuroscience problems, the latter of which is the main focus of the current paper. The human brain is fundamentally a multiscalar problem, with complex behavior spanning nine orders of magnitude-scale tiers f...

Research in higher education institutions is present in all courses, and academic instruction in research methodology is vital, with educational technologies being an essential component of this process. With the Covid-19 pandemic, there were changes in teaching, learning, and in performing scientific research in undergraduate courses. Among the te...

Context: The production of scientific knowledge is not clearly understood by most individuals. In the information age, society faces challenges generated by discrediting institutions, including science, the proliferation of false news, disinformation and the relativisation of truth. These are significant issues that the school cannot refrain from d...

Quantum computing is implicated as a next-generation solution to supplement traditional von Neumann architectures in an era of post-Moores law computing. As classical computational infrastructure becomes more limited, quantum platforms offer expandability in terms of scale, energy-consumption, and native three-dimensional problem modeling. Quantum...

Quantum Computing for the Brain argues that the brain is the killer application for quantum computing. No other system is as complex, as multidimensional in time and space, as dynamic, as less well-understood, as of peak interest, and as in need of three-dimensional modeling as it functions in real-life, as the brain. Quantum computing has emerged...

Com as mudanças que estamos presenciando nos últimos tempos, é preciso que profissionais da Educação estejam alinhados às mudanças tecnológicas e à demanda pela exploração de habilidades que estejam conectadas à Educação 4.0, conforme as competências demarcadas pela BNCC. Este artigo traz uma discussão acerca da importância da gestão na transformaç...

Nativos digitais não: múltiplas imigrações Vocês estão apavorados com seus próprios filhos, pois eles são nativos em um mundo onde vocês sempre serão imigrantes. (You are terrified of your own children, since they are natives in a world where you will always be immigrants.) (John Perry Barlow In A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace, 1996...

Background: While Brazilian governmental initiatives focused on home broadband Internet access, availability of computers for students in schools has been drastically reduced since 2010. Furthermore, schools usually prohibits mobile Internet access in its premises, contrarily to the migration of students' access to smartphones. Objectives: This stu...

The aim of this book is to formalize research regarding technophysics (the application of physics to the study of technology) and smart networks (intelligent autonomously-operating networks), invited but not restricted to the areas of study proposed in this research agenda. (CAN'T SHARE THE FULL-TEXT. SORRY)

The fast-changing Brazilian urban reality segregates people in socio-spatial terms and distributes urban public resources unfairly, threatening student’s access to the structure of educational opportunities and causing school inequalities. Factors such as the existence of public lighting, open sewage and garbage accumulated around the homes, as wel...

This chapter discusses whether PoW, PoS, and hybrid consensus-based blockchains could be considered complex systems and, if so, whether chaotic ones. A positive response would raise concerns about their likelihood of entering a chaotic regime, with catastrophic consequences for financial systems as a potential result. This study was accomplished wi...

The new Provisional Measure 746/2016, removing the compulsory nature of the disciplines of Philosophy and Sociology in the secondary school curriculum, resulted in heated controversies among scholars and massive mobilisations of students across the country against their taking out from High School. The objective of this work was to identify the eff...

The aim of this paper is to propose a theoretical construct, smart network field theory, for the characterization, monitoring, and control of smart network systems. Smart network systems are intelligent autonomously-operating networks, a new form of global computational infrastructure that includes blockchains, deep learning, and autonomous-strike...

Este artigo relata uma experiência sobre a utilização de tecnologias aplicadas na aprendizagem em uma disciplina de Organização de Computadores em um Curso Superior de Tecnologia em Análise e Desenvolvimento de Sistemas, através da metodologia da sala de aula invertida, a fim de melhor instrumentalizar os conceitos relacionados à matemática computa...

This chapter discusses whether PoW, PoS, and hybrid consensus-based blockchains could be considered complex systems and, if so, whether chaotic ones. A positive response would raise concerns about their likelihood of entering a chaotic regime, with catastrophic consequences for financial systems as a potential result. This study was accomplished wi...

In a previous paper, it was discussed whether Bitcoin and/or its blockchain could be considered a complex system and, if so, whether a chaotic one, a positive response raising concerns about the likelihood of Bitcoin/blockchain entering a chaotic regime, with catastrophic consequences for financial systems based on it. This paper intends to simplif...

The intention of this work is to provide a quick overview of what Big Data is and present a few examples of techniques through which it can contribute to Science Education. Google offers the Google Trends (GT) free analysis tool that allows users to sort through several years of Google search queries from around the world to get a graphical plottin...

As livrarias têm sido inundadas por títulos incluindo a palavra “quântica”, mas de caráter do chamado “misticismo quântico”, o qual propõe a existência de ligações entre a mecânica quântica e o misticismo oriental, levando a sérios equívocos. Este trabalho tem como objetivo identificar termos que possam ajudar os leitores, especialmente professores...

The Philosophy of Blockchain Technology is concerned, among other things, with its ontology, how might it be characterised, how is it being created, implemented, and adopted, how does it operate in the world, and how does it evolve over time. Here, we concentrate on whether Bitcoin/blockchain can be considered a complex system and, if so, whether a...

Resumo: A educação profissional procura atender às necessidades das indústrias e dos trabalhadores quanto à formação profissional, apta a desempenhar o seu dever, realizando projetos e manutenções de maquinas, dispositivos e sistemas automatizados. A utilização de Sistemas Embarcados programáveis pode ser uma ferramenta a colaborar no processo do a...

Despite the tantalising evidence for Brazilian students’ socioeconomic status being one of the leading single predictors of their school achievements (dos Santos, 2017), this measure does not account for the complexity of the ‘real income’ (Harvey, 1971) that the city must offer people in terms of material conditions of life, in the form of housing...

This research aimed to identify indications of scientific literacy resulting from a didactic and investigative interaction with Google Trends Big Data software by first-year students from a high-school in Novo Hamburgo, Southern Brazil. Both teaching strategies and research interpretations lie on four theoretical backgrounds. Firstly, Bunge’s epist...

Neste artigo, objetiva-se demonstrar o desenvolvimento de Modelos Mentais da Física Clássica aos alunos de Nível Superior, na disciplina de Física Básica, do Instituto Federal campus Sertão. Implementa-se uma sequência de estratégias pedagógicas como recurso didático para os alunos da disciplina de Física e investigam-se teorias de aprendizagem par...

A educação profissional atende às necessidades das indústrias e dos trabalhadores quanto à formação profissional, apta a desempenhar o seu dever realizando projetos e manutenções de sistemas automatizados. A utilização de Sistemas Embarcados programáveis pode colaborar no processo do estudo da matemática, enquanto recurso didático, como já vem send...

Resumo Este trabalho apresenta uma investigação sobre as características das plataformas de ensino que vêm surgindo, bem como uma discussão acerca do caráter instrucionista que as mesmas estão reaplicando e sobre como os alunos podem aprender matemática utilizando esses ambien-tes. Apresentaremos dois dos ambientes aqui investigados levando em cont...

Storms and other severe weather events can result in fatalities, injuries, and property damage. Therefore, preventing such outcomes to the extent possible is a key concern, and the scientific community faces an increasing demand for regularly updated appraisals of evolving climate conditions and extreme weather. NOAA's Storm Events Database is undo...

Big Data already passed out of hype is now a field that deserves serious academic investigation, and natural scientists should also become familiar with Analytics. On the other hand, there is little empirical evidence that any science taught in school is helping people to lead happier, more prosperous, or more politically well informed lives. In th...

Given the problematic nature of the introduction of high school students to the Research Culture, this paper deals with an analysis of these students’ connections between elements of this kind of investigation and elements of an entertaining card game that simulates it – the game of Eleusis. As theoretical-methodological axis, we used Bardin’s Cont...

This objective is to project through the implementation of a sequence of teaching strategies, plus 3D simulation and implementation of the Qualitative Theory of Physics, develop models Mental classical physics in higher level students in basic discipline of Physics at the Institute Federal, Campus Sertão - not physical students in Physics. So if yo...

This objective is to project through the implementation of a sequence of teaching strategies, plus 3D simulation and implementation of the Qualitative Theory of Physics, develop models Mental classical physics in higher level students in basic discipline of Physics at the Institute Federal, Campus Hinterland - not physical students in Physics. So i...

Graduate level physics curricula in many countries around the world, as well as senior-level undergraduate ones in some major institutions, include Classical Mechanics courses, mostly based on Goldstein's textbook masterpiece. During the discussion of central force motion, however, the Kepler problem is virtually the only serious application presen...

Students do not always realize the value of schoolwork because they often fail to understand the relationship between the themes to be learned and results valuable to their life, what makes them not engaging in the activities. On the other hand, there is only a very limited number of surveys on the subject of the perception of science in general an...

This article reports on an exploratory case study conducted to examine the viability of Second Life (SL) as an environment for physical simulations and microworlds. It begins by discussing specific features of the SL environment relevant to its use as a support for microworlds and simulations as well as a few differences found between SL and tradit...

We live in a digital world that, in 2010, crossed the mark of one zettabyte data. This huge amount of data processed on computers extremely fast with optimized techniques allows one to find insights in new and emerging types of data and content and to answer questions that were previously considered beyond reach. This is the idea of Big Data. Googl...

Student difficulties in learning Physics have been thoroughly discussed in the scientific literature. Already in 1980, Papert complained that schools teach Newtonian motion by manipulating equations rather than by manipulating the Newtonian objects themselves, what would be possible in a 'physics microworld'. On the other hand, Second Life and its...

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the potential of 3D immersive microworlds for the teaching of spatial geometry. We have built a virtual laboratory in Second Life, where strategically arranged geometric objects are able to interact with learners, helping them to build concepts about polyhedra. Respecting the school curriculum, during the...

A educação profissional atende às necessidades das indústrias e dos trabalhadores quanto à formação profissional, apta a desempenhar o seu dever seguindo normas de saúde e segurança. A utilização de ambientes virtuais pode colaborar no processo, enquanto recurso didático, como já vem sendo feito em várias áreas. Neste trabalho, de cunho teórico e d...

Tendo como base a abordagem teórica do Construcionismo, aplicada no processo de aprendizagem, este artigo tem como objetivo investigar a aplicação da teoria de aprendizagem construcionista em um objeto de aprendizagem (narrativa) construído com a ferramenta computacional Photo Story. A construção de narrativas é uma forma de imersão dos atores (alu...

Entender tecnologias associadas aos fenômenos físicos é uma necessidade da sociedade contemporânea. No entanto os professores do ensino médio sentem dificuldade em tratar de temas mais recentes na descoberta científica humana (REIS, 2013; PEREIRA e OSTERMANN, 2009), tais como a Física Quântica. Este trabalho busca na Teoria dos Modelos Mentais de J...

Neste trabalho, pretendeu-se investigar a eficácia da utilização do RPG A Saga da Física como estratégia didática dentro da disciplina de História e Epistemologia da Física, do curso de Licenciatura em Física de uma universidade privada do sul do Brasil, em 2012. Pretendia-se que os estudantes imergissem profundamente nas camadas de realidade do RP...

The purpose of this paper is to analyze how a microworld we have built in SL can help students in building spatial geometry concepts about polyhedra within Papert’s constructionist theoretical framework. It is a 3D immersive laboratory with six rooms and interacting objects strategically arranged according to the van Hiele levels. It gives feedback...

This article reports the origin, objectives, and current status of Second Life Physics Lab (SLP Lab), a Physics and Mathematics teaching research laboratory.

Neste trabalho, pretendeu-se investigar a eficácia da utilização do RPG A saga da Física como estratégia didática no Ensino de História da Física. Pretendia-se que os estudantes imergissem profundamente nas camadas de realidade do RPG e relacionassem suas motivações internas com as motivações dos personagens históricos, de forma que os alunos viven...

Vivemos num universo digital que, em 2010, atravessou a marca de um zettabyte de dados. Essa enorme quantidade de dados, processada em computadores extremamente velozes, com técnicas otimizadas, permite encontrar insights em novos e emergentes tipos de dados e conteúdos, para responder a perguntas que foram anteriormente consideradas fora de nosso...

As dificuldades de aprendizado dos alunos em Física estão bem discutidas na literatura científica. Já em 1980, Papert denunciava que as escolas ensinam o movimento newtoniano por meio de manipulação de equações, em vez de manipulação dos próprios objetos newtonianos. Por outro lado, o Second Life e sua linguagem de programação apresentam uma notáve...

As dificuldades de aprendizado dos alunos em Física são bem conhecidas, havendo vasta literatura científica a respeito, acumulada desde os anos 70. As escolas não conseguem propiciar aos estudantes experiências diretas e físicas do movimento puramente newtoniano e, na sua ausência, são obrigadas a restringir-se a representações altamente matemática...

Often mistakenly seen as a game, the online 3D immersive virtual world Second Life (SL) is itself a huge and sophisticated simulator of an entire Earthlike world. Differently from other metaverses where physical laws are not seriously taken into account, objects created in SL are automatically controlled by a powerful physics engine software. Despi...

As dificuldades de aprendizado dos alunos em Ciências e Matemática estão bem discutidas na literatura científica. Vários autores defendem a utilização de mundos virtuais que, pela sua rica visualização 3D e capacidade de imersão, permitem que os estudantes se envolvam com os conteúdos de forma experiencial, interativa e multissensorial, melhorando...

The ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) are present with great intensity in education and has also presented highlighting the professional education with tools for data analysis, graphics, simulation, virtual reality and augmented reality. The knowledge gained with ICTs are used in practical activities in industrial operations. The stu...

Segundo a Lei de Benford da Controvérsia, quanto mais se soubesse sobre um dado assunto, menos controvérsia haveria. Apesar disso, as dificuldades de aprendizado dos alunos em Física estão bem discutidas na literatura científica e, apesar da quantidade de informação acumulada, não há consenso sobre elas nem sobre como solucioná-las. Também é bem co...

O objetivo deste trabalho é utilizar a idéia da hiperrealidade da Física do SL para demonstrar a viabilidade do ambiente do SL como suporte para micromundos físicos e simulações que permitam experimentação pedagogicamente efetiva com sucessivas leis físicas, diferentes das de Newton, num referencial histórico-psicogenético piagetiano, tal como prop...

O propósito deste artigo é investigar o potencial de micromundos 3D imersivos para o ensino de geometria espacial. Para tanto, foi construído um laboratório virtual no mundo virtual Second Life, onde objetos geométricos dispostos estrategicamente são capazes de interagir com os aprendizes, auxiliando-os na construção de conceitos acerca dos poliedr...

This paper describes the aims and the activities of the group Second Physics, starting from the exhibit presented at the 2011 VW-BPE Conference in Second Life. The educational events and instruments for science popularization have been carried out between 2009-2011. The virtual world Second Life is an immersive environment ideal as a laboratory for...

A cada dia, mais e mais pessoas estão utilizando mundos virtuais como o Second Life para simular sistemas do mundo real, para reconstrução histórica, controle de equipamento físico, planejamento urbano, ensaios em engenharia, treinamentos médicos, militares, de vendas, visualizações científicas, entre muitas outras finalidades. Esses mundos virtuai...