O uso de estudo de caso na disciplina eletiva Química da Limpeza

Abstract

The New Secondary Education, among other proposals, is adding a formative itinerary in the curriculum for Brazilian students, composed of elective subjects, or simply electives. These new subjects cover the contents of the mandatory curricular components in a current and contextualized manner, integrating social and scientific topics, but require active methodologies that align with this proposal. Thus, the Case Study method was chosen to approach the contents of the elective Chemistry of Cleaning. The objective was to contextualize the teaching of sterilization, disinfection, sanitization and antisepsis processes, studied in the elective subject, through the active Case Study methodology and with the participation of 25 students. A first lecture was given, and to collect quantitative data, a questionnaire was applied with questions about students' knowledge of microorganisms before and after the content presentation. During the same class, the dynamic One truth, two lies was conducted, showing student engagement when working in groups. In the second class, the students answered a questionnaire that requested the description of the microbial control processes, which was applied only once. Afterwards, they were able to collaborate in groups again, researching online and presenting on the topic. In the third and final class, a review of the subjects of the first and second class was conducted. Following this, the Case Study was applied to collect qualitative data, and the problem-scenario present in the narrative asked students to solve the problem by demonstrating their knowledge of the descriptions of sterilization, disinfection, sanitization and antisepsis, and identifying the chemicals that fit these processes. When comparing the answers of the first and second applications of the first questionnaire, there was an increase in the number of correct answers for most of the questions. In the second questionnaire, when applied before the group research, the students were unable to correctly describe any antimicrobial process. However, they were able to provide accurate descriptions when answering the Case Study, demonstrating the applicability of this active methodology in teaching chemical agents for microbial control in an elective subject.