Bioenergetic Potential of Jojoba (Simmondsia chinensis): Perception and Contributions to Contextualized Botany Learning
Biofue; Science teaching; Botany teaching.
The accelerated pace of extraction of natural resources, to meet the current consumption demands of society, has provided an increasingly accentuated process of environmental degradation. In the search for cleaner energy matrices, studies on the use of plant biomass as a primary and renewable energy source are necessary. Within this context, plants are a central element for the investigation and discussion of social, economic and environmental issues that, recurrently, are present in society. Considering the teaching of Natural Sciences and itsTechnologies in schools, where botany contents are covered in science and biology subjects, it is observed that this subject, normally, is uninteresting on the students' perspective, therefore reflecting traits of “plant blindness”. In order of contributing to contextualized professional teaching and helping to overcome barriers related to students' lack of motivation to learn botany, the chapter 1 reports a study was carried out with the students of the fourth year of the Biofuels Technician Course of the Apodi campus of the IFRN, whose curriculum provides training based on a broad understanding of diversification and renewable energy sources. Through the application of a semistructured questionnaire, 33 students were initially investigated and part of them effectively participated in the elaborate workshop, in which the species Simmondsia chinensis (jojoba) was chosen to work on concepts related to botany teaching. The integrative practical activities, carried out during the workshop, proved to be effective to stimulating participants' interest in Botany, through the use of plant material from jojoba, and were positive to help the students in the construction of contextualized new knowledge about jojoba, a species that, until then, was unknown by the students as an importante example of an alternative source for the production of biofuel.