Instrumentação eletrônica com materiais alternativos para aulas experimentais de química: uma revisão integrativa

Abstract

Chemistry is an inherently experimental science, and practical classes are essential to completely understand it. Experimentation, besides giving a more concrete character to Chemistry, allows students to develop various skills, such as critical thinking, hypothesis elaboration, and decision making, while favoring social interactions. In this context, the use of electronic instruments can favor the development of these skills. In this work, an integrative review was carried out with the objective of investigating the scientific literature on electronic instrumentation with alternative materials for experimental chemistry classes in Brazil over the past 10 years. After a literature search and the application of inclusion and exclusion criteria, 18 articles were selected, whose analysis resulted in two categories: "Electronic instrumentation with alternative materials for experimental chemistry classes" and "Didactic strategies employed in experimental chemistry classes". The results of this study indicated that all the proposed instruments were designed with low-cost, alternative materials, favoring their use in school environments with few financial resources. Most of them were colorimeters and photometers having scanners and cell phones as main components, which were used to capture digital images. In addition, most of the practical classes with these instruments were carried out in Higher Education institutions, which, although they had some investigative aspects, were presented as linear sequences to guide students through the activities. Some studies focused on the design of instruments employing assistive technology for the visually impaired, most of them with the electronic prototyping platform Arduino. It was also possible to infer that the great majority of the selected studies did not incorporate the practical classes in a broader teaching methodology, for example a didactic sequence.