Suplementos alimentares no ensino de química

Abstract

The struggle of the students in Chemistry, most often, is due to a lack of contextualized lessons that relate the theory with the everyday. The Institutional Program of Initiation to Teaching (Programa Institucional de Bolsa de Iniciação à Docência – PIBID) tries to work in a contextualized and interdisciplinary way because it is believed that the students will feel motivated to participate in activities in school. In this context, the scholars of the PIBID-Chemistry from the Federal University of Ceara (UFC) developed an interdisciplinary work involving the areas of Biology, Physical Education, History and Philosophy called “Enjoying the best of life” in which the subject is licit and illicit drugs, in Messejana State School. In this great project, the chemistry has chosen the subject Food Supplement for being of interest to the students and it is being used more and more without medical guidance. The material elaborated to address the topic used contents seen in Chemistry classrooms. The activity occurred in the whole school, morning and afternoon periods, with the aid of the teachers of the various areas involved. The activity consisted of a lecture of approximately 1 hour, which addressed the main substances present in food supplements, always relating to the chemical content, focusing on harm caused by these substances in the human body. All the participant areas gave their contribution, highlighting the most important aspects and adding more to the learning of the students. We could see that the participating students knew that the food supplement would bring several problems, but they could not identify what substances cause them. Some students identified themselves with the topic; making comments on their personal experiences voluntarily, others showed resistance to it. In the end the survey showed the activity was well received and praised by the students and school administration.