Popular knowledge, Chemistry and medicinal plants

a teaching approach for secondary level based on practical activities

Abstract

The text discusses a teaching sequence about medicinal plants, guided by research inside and outside the classroom and developed in the curricular components of Chemistry and Integrated Seminar. The theme makes it possible to value the popular knowledge of students, which contributes to the construction of educational practice. Chemistry teaching approached the reality of students from the rescue and appreciation of some popular knowledge in the classroom to go beyond the abstract understanding of knowledge. Along this concept, activities contribute to learning Chemistry and to the citizenship formation of students. The diversification of the adopted teaching strategies favored understanding the approached contents and the representational language of the structures in Organic Chemistry. It was possible to perceive, on the part of the students, an appropriation of related chemical concepts and terms, showing the contribution of the theme to the context of basic education, both in the development of school contents and in the student's research, which gives them greater autonomy in search for information.