SUSTAINABLE EXPERIMENTAL PRACTICE: THE MUCILAGE OF THE XIQUE-XIQUE CACTUS AS ACOAGULANT FOR THE TREATMENT OF TURBED WATER

Abstract

Chemistry is generally viewed negatively by elementary school students. This problem in many cases is the result of the lack of applicability of methodologies that instigate the interest of students and guarantee the inclusion of all of them. Therefore, the work on screen aimed to report the development of an accessible and contextualized experimental class, in one of the 4th year of the Technical Course Integrated to the High School of Environmental Control of the Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology of Paraíba - IFPB, João Campus Person. This action was intended to encourage the active participation of students through the didactic approaches addressed. Thus, through a qualitative and participatory research, the scholarship holders of the Tutorial Education Program of the Degree in Chemistry - PET Chemistry, from the aforementioned institution, developed an activity entitled "Experimental Chemistry Course for High School - CQEEM". This teaching intervention exposed a low-cost process to improve water quality, through the mucilage of the Xique-Xique cactos (Pilosocereus gounellei), a natural coagulant, for the treatment of cloudy water. This theme was chosen because it is a current and relevant subject to the experience of students of environmental control courses. The activity was divided into two parts: carrying out tests to confirm the real coagulante potential of the plant, and the development of the experimental procedure, by the group, from the separation of the samples of turbid water, the treatment of the water with the cactus mucilage, until the analysis of the turbidity decrease of the samples. In this process, the students presented satisfactory considerations regarding the activity, showing that this practice was fundamentally important for their technical training.