Studies show that the use of games and interactive materials at schools is a good educational strategy, motivating students to create mental outlines and developing the reasoning and facilitating the learning. In this context, the Scientific Dissemination Coordination of the Center for Structural Molecular Biotechnology (CBME), developed a series of educational materials destined to the elementary and high schools, universities and general public. Among these, we highlighted the Virtual Cells software that was developed with the aim of helping in the understanding of the basic concepts of cell types, their structures, organelles and specific functions. Characterized by its interactive interface, this software shows eukaryotes and prokaryotes cells images, where organelles are shown as dynamic structures. In addition, it presents exercises in another step that reinforce the comprehension of Cytology. A speaker narrates the resources offered by the program and the necessary steps for its use. During the stage of development of the software, students and teachers of public and private high schools from São Carlos city, São Paulo State, were invited to register their opinions regarding the language and content of the software in order to help us in the improvement of it. After this stage, the Scientific Dissemination Coordination of CBME organized a series of workshops, where 120 individuals evaluated the software (students and teachers of high school and others undergraduate students). For this evaluation, a questionnaire was elaborated based on the international current literature in the area of sciences teaching and it was applied after the interactive section with the software. The analysis of the results demonstrated that most of the individuals considered the software of easy handling, having an accessible language, supporting the software as an education tool that is capable to facilitate the learning of the fundamental concepts about the theme. Other workshops are programmed to happen with participants from different educational institutions of São Carlos city, with the goal to broaden our sample.

Studies demonstrate that a good strategy in education is the use of games in the school atmosphere, intensifying the teaching and learning process. The game as educational tool motivates the students in an emotional, motor, social and cognitive way, helping them to create mental outlines, to develop the reasoning and in the construction of the knowledge. In this context, the dissemination team of the Centre for Structural Molecular Biotechnology (CBME), in partnership with the Centre for Scientific and Cultural Dissemination (CDCC-USP), developed a board game entitled Synthesizing Proteins, in order to help the learning and the comprehension of the transcription and translation processes, and of the synthesis of proteins, using examples of human proteins. The game was applied and evaluated in a systematic way, in order to validate it as an educational tool of teaching-learning as well as to correctly disseminate it.The CBME dissemination team planned activities like workshops, where the game was applied for high school students of public and private schools of São Carlos city (SP). As evaluation tool a questionnaire was elaborated containing questions regarding the concepts involved in the proteins synthesis process. This questionnaire was applied before (pre-test) and two weeks after the end of the activity (post-test), in order to check the previous and the acquired knowledge of the students after the manipulation of the educational material.Analyzing the results of these pre-and post-tests, it was observed that, although most of the students has presented difficulties regarding the nomenclature and the details of the biochemical processes, these students were able to understand satisfactorily the following aspects: DNA is located in the nucleus of animal cells; the proteins are constituted of amino acids; the dynamics of the molecules of DNA, RNA and proteins during the interactions demonstrated by the game, and the structural difference among these molecules. The most of the students improved their knowledge after playing the game, which validates the game as an useful educational tool in the teaching of protein synthesis.