Astrobiological context as a strategic tool for the teaching of biology: a perspective from Brazilian curriculum

Bruna Mayato ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8431-8299 Universidade Veiga de Almeida, Brasil E-mail: bruna.astrobio@gmail.com Maíra Moraes ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1766-2137 Universidade Veiga de Almeida, Brasil E-mail: maira.pereira@uva.br Bruno Leonardo do Nascimento-Dias ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3632-9073 Universidade Federal de Juiz de Fora, Brasil E-mail: bruno.astrobio@gmail.com

regardless of their professional choices, abilities or intellectual preferences (Brazil, 2002). For didactical purposes, these structuring topics are presented sequentially in two distinct ways: one that privileges the general functioning of living beings in their macroscopic manifestation and another that addresses the microscopic dimension of their phenomena (Brazil, 2002).
Hence, we have sequence 1, whose concepts and visions depart from the current scenario of life on our planet and goes, from the first to the last school year, from macroscopic dimension to microscopic dimension, as shown in Figure 1. The second sequence deals with conceptual and abstract subjects in the first academic years, in which the microscopic dimension of living beings is discussed, followed by the macroscopic manifestation of the living systems, as shown in Figure 2. Research, Society and Development, v. 9, n.1, e200911879, 2020 (CC BY 4.

Discussion
In this section, the discussion of structuring topics will be presented from the astrobiological approach and sequence 2 previously discussed.

Origin and evolution of life
In this first topic, the discussion is guided by instigating concepts, such as the origin of life in the universe. In this way, the curricular contents approaches in this topic have a great scientific and philosophical relevance, in which students will have the opportunity to perceive and discuss possible interpretations of their own origins and of everything that exists.
Currently, in the scientific community, the origin of life on Earth is discussed, basically, following two possible perspectives. One of them, known as Abiogenesis or Hypothesis of the Spontaneous Generation, suggests that life may have arisen through inert matter by a spontaneous process, extremely slow and gradually increasing of functionalmolecular complexity. In counterpoint, there is the hypothesis known Panspermia, which suggests that life may have arisen from outside the Earth, by the biogenic process, such as the action of microorganisms that have the ability to survive interplanetary travels or even interstellar travel (Rodrigues & Carrapiço, 2005).
Historically, many philosophers and scientists have already proposed explanations for the origin of life. Some of them, as the Greek philosopher Aristotle, a pioneer in the defense of Abiogenesis, wrote that nature can be able to advance, little by little, from lifeless things to animal life, in way that would be impossible to draw a line between the living and non-living.
In this way, it would be difficult to define the simplest living organism, considering that they Research, Society and Development, v. 9, n.1, e200911879, 2020 (CC BY 4.0) | ISSN 2525-3409 | DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.33448/rsd-v9i1.1879 8 may have arisen as early as the first 500 million years after the emergence and formation of the Earth (Impey, 2009).
According to Damineli and Damineli (2007), the English naturalist Charles Darwin, in a still conceptual way, imagined that life could have arisen from a puddle of nutritious broth, containing ammonia, phosphorus salts, light, heat, and electricity. Basically, these ingredients would be part of the chemical process that would originate the first proteins and that would have been transformed into more complex compounds until they gave rise to the first living organic beings.
However, according to Luisi (2013), the exclusion of any divine intervention in the historical course of the origin of life, theoretically, is due to the Russian chemist Alexander Ivanovich Oparin . According to the author, the extension of evolution to the molecular world, as the first chapter of life's evolution, has only made progress from Oparin's ideas. With this, Oparin sought to understand the origin of life as part of the evolution of biochemical reactions, through competition and Darwinian selection in the prebiotic Earth, that is, before the emergence of life. He argued that molecules would have the capacity for spontaneous grouping, forming functional structures in increasing degree of complexity.
Fundamentally, at some point, this hypothesis can be considered as a modern version of the spontaneous generation, as illustrated in Figure 3. The figure shows that there is an increase in the complexity of the biological system, starting from molecules to the formation of cells. development of these technologies, society has been benefited in several areas, such as agronomy, industry of synthetic compounds, bioremediation, molecular diagnostics and criminalistics.
Thus, it is possible to observe how the knowledge produced by research in pure science, such as Astrobiology, can promote many applications for a better quality of human life.

Final Considerations
In this work, it was proposed a possible insertion of Astrobiology through structural themes identified in the Complementary Educational Guidelines for National Curricular Parameters of High School from Brazil, with the objective of providing an interdisciplinary and motivating environment for students, and facilitating the process of teaching-learning.
Thus, educators can also favor the development of skills necessary for the development of students.
Furthermore, it was possible to evidence the relevance of Astrobiology as a multidisciplinary teaching tool due to the fact that its main object of study is the phenomenon of life in the cosmic context. This new scientific field has great potential for Biology teaching, as it provides students with an integrated view of the natural sciences.
Finally, it is expected that this work will serve of motivation for future research, in order to contribute for the dissemination of Astrobiology as a promising scientific field and to emphasize its importance for an integrative scientific education.