The use of experiments in Chemistry with CTS approach in the understanding of the environmental problems

Abstract

Science fairs are commonly held in elementary schools seeking to engage students in a more active didactic perspective. In 2017, the Center for Education and Research Applied to Education, a school linked to the Federal University of Goiás, held its first Science Fair. In the discipline of Science the work developed with the 9th grade classes directed the realization of experiments to establish relations between the environmental problem and the issues of Science, Technology and Society. For the investigative context of this movement, the case study was used and, as a data collection instrument, the participant observation of the teacher / researcher, the recording in field diary and photographic records were used. For the article, we focused on the presentations of four groups that presented experiments focused on energy production, recycling and environmental impacts generated by the production of consumer goods. In the teaching and learning perspective, students’ engagement, both behavioral and emotional and cognitive, was evidenced, as well as the structuring of a meaning process from the planning, organization and realization stages of the experiments. Considering the analysis carried out, it is possible that the Science Fairs are presented as interesting didactic possibilities for the discussion and reflection on the role of the human being as an agent of interference in the environmental balance, taking as a cut the development of the technologies available in the current society.