17/08/2020

Actress teaches math to college entrance exam takers on Instagram.

A atriz Giovanna Coimbra na novela “Bom sucesso”, da Globo. Foto: reprodução do Instagram.

Distance learning, resulting from the new coronavirus pandemic, represents an extra challenge for students in many parts of the country. For young people facing the crucial year of university entrance exams, the impact on planning can be even greater. But some individual initiatives are trying to mitigate the effects of the pandemic on education. This is the case of the project by actress and Civil Engineering student at the State University of Rio de Janeiro (UERJ), Giovanna Coimbra, who created an Instagram page to help students preparing for the National High School Exam (ENEM) in mathematics. With three thousand followers, the Quarentenáticos profile brings together exercises and summaries of the main topics covered in the exam.

“I’m not a teacher. But I can share my knowledge, my perspective as a student, and study methodologies, especially given the urgency and need of these people, considering that private schools are offering classes, but many public schools are not,” the actress told Jornal Extra .

On the Encontro com Fátima program this Friday (14) , Giovanna detailed how the project has been working, which is run together with her friend Nicole, an Engineering student at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ). “Given all the demand, the greatest happiness was that, while some people were contacting us with questions, others made themselves available to help with the content.” She reported that she has already received more than 20,000 messages, some of them from pre-university course teachers who offered to create material. “There was also a Geography student from the Federal Fluminense University (UFF) who offered to help with the subject,” she pointed out.

The actress acknowledges the limitations of Quarentenáticos, but believes that in difficult times like these, every effort is worthwhile. “We know that many people don't even have internet access, but our main motivation is to be able to help within our reach. The page may not help everyone, but everyone can help someone.”

Engineer uses free time to record math video lessons.

The turn of the 26th birthday of production engineer João Jablonski was very different from what he imagined a few months ago. In quarantine, he spent the date editing math video lessons for Simples.mat , an Instagram profile he launched on Monday (10) to help students with difficulty accessing education in preparation for the vestibular exam. “I realized that the pandemic further emphasized the inequality in access to education and I thought 'what can I do to help these people?'. Now, with more free time, I realized that I had a chance to do good for others.”

Drawing on his expertise from his time as a college preparatory course teacher, the engineer created a syllabus based on the ENEM (Brazilian National High School Exam) and topics covered in college preparatory courses. “I planned to create content that covers the beginning of the 5th grade, the start of middle school, up to the 3rd year of high school. I started with algebra, a subject I have practical experience teaching, and I intend to go from factorization to exponential functions. The idea is to cover all the topics chronologically, with a link between them,” he explains.

O engenheiro João Jablonski preparando aulas de matemática para o perfil que criou no Instagram.

Incorporating the new activity into his routine has been a challenge, even with the free time brought about by the quarantine. Until 10 pm on weekdays, João works from home , and only starts dedicating himself to the project after that. “It takes me between eight and ten hours to record a segment of a topic, which can have between two and four videos. I have to plan the lesson, record it, and edit it. I'm worried about how I'm going to do this from now on, but I'll figure it out.”

The results have been positive. In less than a week, the page already has almost a thousand followers. “Since the profile is recent, I haven't yet received more specific feedback from students about the content. But some people have already thanked me and said they would use the videos to study,” says the engineer. “Education is an issue that motivates me. I consider it a very important engine for the development of society in general.”

Redesigned and more functional, theOBMEP Portal can also be an important ally for Brazilian students this year. The platform offers math and physics content for elementary and high school students. To start studying, simply access the website and watch the free content available in videos, texts, and exercises. The portal also offers additional topics that are not usually covered in basic education but deal with subjects of interest to students.