Plantas Medicinais: uma proposta para o ensino de Química em contexto Amazônico, valorizando os saberes populares, escolares e acadêmicos.

Abstract

This research addresses the topic of medicinal plants as a proposal for teaching Chemistry in the Amazon context. Plants have been used over the years by civilizations to cure diseases. In Brazil, medicinal plants also gain prominence in their applications and several cultures use these to prepare medicines. The Amazon has a very rich biodiversity, its flora is home to enormous wealth, its population expresses diverse cultures and knowledge about medicinal plants. This research aims to value popular, scholarly and academic knowledge in the context of teaching Chemistry. A bibliographic survey, descriptive, qualitative research and participatory action research were carried out in two state and urban public schools in the city of Benjamin Constant-AM, that is, the Escola Imaculada Conceição (with classes from 105, 205, 305 and 306, totaling 28 students), and the Full Time Educational Center School (CETI) Professor Aristélio Sabino de Oliveira (with classes 102, 105, 201, 302, totaling 20 students). Favorable results were obtained on the use of students' knowledge in relation to the theme Medicinal Plants, as a contribution to the teaching and learning process of Science (Chemistry, Biology and Physics) in a perspective of interdisciplinary interaction. The proposed objective, of valuing the knowledge of students with the theme Medicinal Plants, was achieved, and it is possible to say that the theme aroused the interest of students in learning science. Therefore, contextualization with the knowledge of students about medicinal plants, acquired by their families and passed on from generation to generation, is an important teaching tool to help teachers in the classroom. Approaching the students' reality, with their daily lives, and enabling them to move a little from the theoretical part taught in textbooks to the practical part, it was noticed that there were improvements in the teaching-learning process, which became more significant, thus improving the relationship between teacher-student or studio-teacher. It is concluded that it was a relevant work for the Amazon region, as the proposed theme is in fact part of the students' routine, which should be valued and put into action in favor of the innovative High School program.