Papel dos alunos da rede pública de ensino na investigação sobre o uso de plantas medicinais em Limoeiro de Anadia (AL)

Abstract

Teaching by investigation is a didactic approach that allows planning, questioning and building one's own knowledge. Analyzing the current school context, there is a notable need for alternative methods that consider students' prior knowledge, providing ways for them to be able to relate popular knowledge to scientific knowledge, thus building meaningful learning. The main objective of this work was to promote investigative actions by high school students of the public network of medicinal plants used in their community. The study was carried out with 60 students from the 2nd year of high school at the Francisco Domingues State School, in the municipality of Limoeiro de Anadia (AL). The research was conducted according to the following steps: 1) Presentation of the proposal and application of a prior knowledge questionnaire; 2) Launching problem-questions to encourage students to think about what kind of work could be done in the community, followed by sharing a specific bibliography by the master's student; 3) Division of students into groups to formulate a questionnaire to be applied in the community to survey plants and their medicinal uses; 4) Creation of a folder with information related to medicinal plants used by the community; 5) Application of the perception questionnaire on the methodology used. The results showed that students have prior knowledge about the use of medicinal plants by the community, the most cited being: mint, lemon balm, boldo, rue, basil and rosemary, aimed at diseases and symptoms of the digestive, respiratory and genitourinary systems. The survey in the community pointed out that the leaves are the most used organs, with tea being the main form of preparation. The answers given by the students, in an initial survey, were very similar to those given by the community, which indicated that the students already had prior, empirical knowledge about the medicinal use of some plants in the community where they live. As a product, a folder was developed with some information about the plants most cited by the interviewed population. All the work was developed continuously and the students' protagonism in the development of the project was constantly encouraged by the master's student.