Plantas medicinais como potencialidades pedagógicas no ensino de Ciências e na Educação Ambiental

Abstract

In the school space, encouraging students to reflect on everyday issues and having a social relevance, as is the case of the traditional culture that involves medicinal plants, emerges as an important pedagogical proposal to awaken the practice of environmental education. The objective of this work was to approach medicinal plants as a potential pedagogical strategy for the practice of environmental education in science education at Edmur Arlindo de Oliveira State School, located in the municipality of Jaboatão dos Guararapes-PE. The field research was from November 2015 to June 2016 and had as participants: the professor of sciences and biology (researcher), three collaborating professors (IFPE researchers), IFPE PIBIC and PIBEX scholarship students and a group of students from the Elementary school (7th grade A / 8th grade A) and high school (1st year / 2nd grade A) of the school under study. It is an action research, with a qualitative approach and ethnographic character. Data collection instruments were used semi-structured questionnaires, interviews, videotapes, written and photographic records. There were lectures, workshops and practical activities, focused on the content of medicinal plants, as training activities. It was found that the majority of school science teachers do not include the content "medicinal plants" in their pedagogical plans, nor are there any projects or activities in the area of environmental education in the school. The students' interest in studying and deepening their knowledge about medicinal plants was identified. It was observed that the training activities offered to the students contributed significantly to the increase of the knowledge and the rescue of the traditional culture of the medicinal plants. From the needs identified in the research, the present work shows itself as a pedagogical proposal, with an interdisciplinary character, that can be applied in the school space, contemplating the disciplines of biology and chemistry.