Chromatography on paper as an interdisciplinary practical activity for the 1st year of high school-Cromatografia em papel como atividade prática interdisciplinar para o 1º ano do Ensino Médio

Abstract

Knowledge is acquired as an interdisciplinary process, that is, it establishes a link between different disciplines. An activity that can be used as an integrating activity is paper chromatography, which consists of a physical-chemical analysis process for separating mixtures. Thus, the purpose of this study was to analyse the application of paper chromatography as an interdisciplinary method for teaching Biology, Physics and Chemistry, for the 1st year of High School at a school in Itacoatiara, Amazonas. The study is quali-quantitative type, carried out at a state school called Professor Mirtes Rosa Mendes de Mendonça Lima, in three classes of the 1st Year of High School, with a class named control and two participants. A previous questionnaire was applied to both classes, followed by a theoretical class and a second questionnaire for control and theoretical class, experimental activity and a second questionnaire for the participant class. The percentage of correct answers among the questionnaires was evaluated by Analysis of Variance – ANOVA. In total, 62 students from the three classes participated. From the results obtained, it was possible to verify that there was improvement in the students' understanding of the contents of Chemistry and Physics, however, there the same did not happen for Biology. The ANOVA results show that, when comparing the correctness of the questionnaires, there was no difference between the control group and the participating classes. Therefore, it is possible to conclude that paper chromatography is a facilitating activity for the integration and learning of the contents of Physics and Chemistry; and that the chromatography experimental activity did not contribute to the understanding of the content in relation to the traditional class, however, it developed a greater motivation and participation of the students.

Keywords

• active methodology
• experimentation
• teaching practice