Conhecimento popular botânico: uma abordagem etnobotânica para o ensino de ciências

Abstract

Ethnobotany understood as a field of science that seeks to understand the relationship between man and plants has grown considerably in recent years, mainly, focusing on interconnection as a school environment. The progress of Science has allowed the discovery and advancement of scientific knowledge for different sectors of society. However, it is observed that the hegemonization of scientific knowledge resulted in the devaluation of popular knowledge, especially those related to the field of botany, causing the biological and cultural impoverishment of traditional knowledge. In this sense, in the school environment there was a gap between popular knowledge and scientific knowledge, generating a conflict with students, making this connection in the teaching-learning process impossible with what is learned in the classroom and what is experienced in their daily lives. With this, the present study aimed to evaluate the contributions of popular botanical knowledge in understanding the contents of botany present in Science Teaching. The study was carried out in a public full-time school in the city of São Carlos - SP. It is an intervention, carried out through a regency on botany, in which a semi-structured questionnaire was subsequently applied, addressing popular knowledge about the plants of the student and his family. It was found that the plants are inserted in the daily lives of most families, and can be found in the students' food, in medicinal and ornamental use. However, botanical blindness makes it impossible to recognize the relevance of plants, therefore, seeing them as absolutely necessary for our survival is a daily exercise.