Química forense e experimentação investigativa: uma proposta inovadora para as aulas de Química do Ensino Médio

Abstract

Forensic science is an area that provides support to criminal and civil investigations so that crimes and conflicts might be able to be solved through methods and techniques of trace analysis; it has several branches, such as forensic engineering, forensic archeology, among others. In this work, we chose one of the areas of this science as an object of study: forensic chemistry, which uses chemical concepts for analysis, sorting, and defining which substances are present in places of probable crimes, seeking to unravel them. Forensic chemistry allows a connection among chemistry (subject) taught in high school and several activities, and that being so, we tried to find in a bibliographic search how the forensic area has been explored, concerning the educational scope. After that, we could notice the lack of research that addresses the chemistry content in a contextualized way, connected to the forensic area, and also, one that is not only just made of ludic activities such as forensic experiments disconnected from chemical content but also made of activities that aggregate in the construction of scientific knowledge. Therefore, we developed a learning material with the potential to bring the chemistry subject closer to situations related to the student's reality, using forensic chemistry as the guide, where through the stimulus of curiosity and investigation, it can favor the learning of the contents of this subject. Thus, we built an educational product focused on the chemistry educator to apply to their students, focusing on investigative experimental activities and case studies combined with forensic chemistry. We are concerned about providing a learning material with different activities that would suit the reality of many schools, where there is no chemistry laboratory or the access to reagents is limited. So, videos of forensic experiments are available in QR Code inside this material, in addition to the experiment scripts in printable format and QR Code, interview with a criminal expert, analysis of forensic investigative series, and case studies. Thus, the activities proposed here seek to offer autonomy to students, valuing the investigative experimentation associated with case studies as a way to enhance the teaching and learning process of chemistry contents. Keywords: forensic chemistry, forensic science, chemistry teaching, investigative experimentation, case study