From the Kitchen to the Environment: A STS Approach to the Responsible Disposal of Cooking Oil.
Organic Functions; Used Oil Disposal; STS Approach
The difficulty in learning Chemistry for high school students becomes more intense due to the lack of connection between concepts and everyday applications. Seeking to minimize this problem and make the content relevant to students' lives, we are designing a didactic sequence with an STS (Science, Technology, and Society) approach, where students will start from a real-world problem situation in which Chemistry concepts can help provide solutions. In this context, the purpose is to apply and analyze the didactic sequence, focusing on the topic of Oxygenated Organic Functions, specifically Carboxylic Acids. The objective is for students to acquire skills that enable them to identify fatty acids and their physicochemical properties, and to disseminate information about the environmental damage caused by the improper disposal of used frying oil, with an STS focus. The environment has been undergoing considerable changes in its natural resources, and this has been caused by human actions. The interaction between society and the environment can cause damage to its quality. We can highlight the improper disposal of used frying oil, which will be addressed in the problem situation and which impacts the environment by contaminating soil and water. The research will be developed using a qualitative approach and will be applied at Escola Estadual Desembargador Floriano Cavalcanti, located in the city of Natal/RN, in a 3rd-year high school class of the Potiguar Education system, through a sequence of 8 sessions involving a prior knowledge questionnaire, reading of the problem situation, and discussions on the addressed theme. As an educational product, a didactic sequence will be developed covering the composition of cooking oil, its characteristics regarding polarity and solubility in water, as well as the impacts caused by improper disposal and recycling.