Uma proposta didático-pedagógica utilizando um software livre para interpretar a PCA

Abstract

Considering the importance that chemometrics has presented in higher education courses, and in view to contributing to the development and expansion of PCA teaching proposals, the aim of this work is to present a didactic-pedagogical proposal that can be developed in higher education courses in which chemometrics subjects are included in the curriculum. Based on data collected in a semi-open questionnaire, a proposal was developed based on methodological principles of Historical-Critical Pedagogy, containing the objectives, the problems surrounding the topic, and the cultural instruments necessary for understanding and interpreting PCA in the discipline of chemometrics by using new resources and instruments, especially free software, Chemostat. This proposal covers topics related to the concept of chemometrics and PCA and the explanation of the data set, pre-processing, use of Chemostat software, and analysis of principal components. It is hoped that this proposal can promote a better understanding concerning PCA on the part of students, as well as effective incorporation of the phenomena that involve this tool and its applications, and interpretation. Likewise, it is expected that this didactic-pedagogical proposal can support new teaching practices in chemometrics subjects in higher education.