Controvérsias do setor sucroalcooleiro: sequência didática problematizadora para o ensino de química com enfoque CTS

Abstract

The teaching of Chemistry with a focus on Science, Technology and Society (STS) provides the discussion and learning of chemical concepts allying different knowledge for the formation of citizenship, stimulating students to reflect and to have a critical posture facing the reality in which they are inserted. STS curriculums involve scientific, social, environmental and economic knowledges that is structured in the students' experience. An approach that presents potential for the development of STS focused activities for Chemistry classes is the sugarcane theme. The cultivation and processing of sugarcane has influenced the Brazilian economy since colonial times, when the first sugar mills in the country were established. Today the so-called sugar-alcohol sector has been modernized and the sugarcane is used not only for sugar production, but due to the demand for biofuels it is also used in the production of ethanol, and combined with the use of bagasse for energy production, so, the number of sectors in which the sugar cane is used has increased rapidly, but this expansion has lead to controversy, allows different viewpoints and creates problems in various areas. Emerges on this social theme, the research investigates mainly as a problem-based teaching sequence with STS approach can influence the students to learn about concepts of Chemistry present in the sugarcane industry as distillation and fermentation and their positioning ahead all contexts involving the expansion of sugar and alcohol in the south region of Mato Grosso do Sul. The didactic sequence was organized and structured following the three pedagogical moments by the means of contextualized texts, videos, discussions and experiment whichenhance the students’ knowledge about the sugarcane and STS. In terms of the qualitative approach used in the study, data was analyzed using the Textual Discursive Analysis, which allows you to verify the acquisition of scientific understandings and methodological limitations. It is possible to see from the analyzed data that the work helped third year students of a public high school in Dourados - MS understand the chemical concepts in the industrial processing of sugarcane as well as identifying controversies in the expansion of this sector in the south region of Mato Grosso do Sul.All in all, the didatic sequence encouraged the students to reflect and gain knowledge from problematization the reality of students.