Milk adulteration: an inquiry proposal experienced by a group of deaf students in the bilingual perspective

Abstract

Chemical knowledge makes possible the understanding of the transformations that occur in Nature, as well as contributes to the formation of critical citizens prepared for the decision making in the solution of daily problems. The learning of chemical concepts is most effective when students participate in the process of building this knowledge. This work is a cut from a master's thesis aiming to verify how the construction of chemical concepts occurs during an Inquiry Teaching Sequence (ITS) with the theme of milk adulteration, developed with a group of deaf students from high school, in a bilingual perspective. The research was carried out in a qualitative approach using action research. The ITS was realized in three stages: i) initial conceptions, problematization and hypothesis collection; ii) experimental activity; iii) systematization and post-experiment discussion. The research data were collected from participant observation, class recording, student productions, questionnaires applied before and after the ITS and the semi-structured interview. At each stage, analyses seeking possibilities for constructing chemical concepts based on the topic addressed were sought. The results indicated that the ITS allowed the students to build a more reasoned argument when discussing the topic addressed and in the solution of the proposed problem, contributing to the apprehension of chemical concepts, promoting intellectual development and autonomy. Furthermore, the debate on the subject and classroom communication in the mother tongue of the deaf (Libras) allowed the construction of scientific concepts and promoted greater involvement of students in the activities carried out.