Vermicompostagem e princípios ativos de plantas medicinais: estratégias pedagógicas no ensino de reações químicas

Abstract

The teaching of chemical transformations (chemical reactions) in the Chemistry discipline often has little attractiveness for students, as they are unable to relate theory to practice, nor to contextualize the content with their daily lives. In this sense, it is necessary that the teacher seeks to use in their classes different teaching methodologies that allow the understanding of chemical reactions. This dissertation refers to the application of pedagogical strategies developed from vermicomposting practices and the extraction of active principles from medicinal plants, with the objective of inserting the content of chemical reactions, envisioning the possibility of offering the theoretical context associated with the practice in teaching Chemistry. This study sought to answer the following question: how could the implementation of the practice of vermicomposting and the extraction of active principles from medicinal plants contribute to improving the understanding of the theoretical content of chemical reactions for high school students? The research methodology was based on the qualitative analysis of the application of two practical pedagogical strategies inserted in two didactic sequences. The data collected for analysis were extracted from questionnaires, from the teacher’s field diaries, from the booklet and from the students’ records. A comparison of data between the previous assessment of students’ knowledge with the data obtained after the application of the pedagogical strategies was carried out. The teacher’s field diaries, the booklet, the students’ records and the results obtained from the questionnaires indicated that the practices carried out brought a more welcoming dynamic to the students, demonstrating that they were able to better understand the relationship between theory and practice. Through the data obtained through different analysis tools, it was possible to develop the educational product with proposals for pedagogical strategies. The educational product contains didactic sequences on teaching chemical reactions and active principles.