Open Chrysalis: A Formation Memoir Spreading Wings across Science, Playfulness, and the Teaching Vocation

Abstract

This formation memoir narrates the teaching and scientific trajectory of a public-school Science and Biology teacher, from childhood influences — including the Role-Playing Game (RPG) as both a concealed and later systematized pedagogical practice — to entry into higher education. The account articulates formative experiences in undergraduate studies, scientific research in Cell Biology and Embryology, a postdoctoral fellowship in Zoology, and teaching in public schools, showing how these spheres mutually penetrate and reinforce one another. It describes the development of a Scientific Initiation in Basic Education (ICEB) project on Brazilian biomes, mediated by tabletop RPG, as the practical synthesis of this trajectory. It also presents roles in the Institutional Scholarship Program for Teaching Initiation (Pibid), supervision of professional master's students (PROFBIO), and entry into private higher education teaching, as well as the proposition of a research line on Lepidoptera ecology articulated with teaching and community outreach. The paper argues that public schools are inhabited by more than capable individuals, whose creative and intellectual potential awaits institutional conditions to flourish, and that teachers, like butterflies, are in permanent metamorphosis, gaining wings when they witness the transformation of their students.

Keywords: Formation memoir. Scientific initiation in basic education. RPG game.