Sistema Regional de Información
en línea para Revistas Científicas de América Latina,
el Caribe, España y Portugal

Experimentation and contextualization are important methodologies in chemistry teaching. This study aimed to develop a didactic sequence (DS) focused on integrating experimentation and contextualization into teaching, using the theme of forage palm (FP). Three experimental kits were developed with three different types of FP, and through qualitative research, the chemical knowledge constructed by students from contextualized experimental practices was analyzed. The data were collected through the development of the DS and interpreted based on the steps of content analysis. The results showed that students understood the covered content and recognized the connections between chemistry, cultivation, and the use of FP. It is concluded that the development of contextualized experimental practices promoted student involvement and active participation in discussions, as well as helping to identify limitations in the transition between macroscopic, submicroscopic, and representational levels.

This article aimed to analyze the perceptions of chemistry undergraduates regarding immersion in a Portable Pedagogical Escape Room (PPER). Thirty-seven undergraduates, scholarship holders from three chemistry subprojects of initial training programs at a Brazilian public university, participated voluntarily. The PPER, consisting of four phases, addressed the central theme “acid rain” and was implemented in the university’s chemistry laboratory. After the experience, participants completed an electronic form containing sentence completions (SC). Using the Iramuteq software, a matrix similarity analysis was performed based on the selection of 40 words of highest and lowest frequency (f) and their expressive meaning. The results reveal perceptions related to knowledge construction; the influence of emotions and feelings during task execution; reflections on the need for study and deepening of theoretical and practical knowledge; stimulation of creativity for problem solving; and understanding of new strategies for chemistry teaching. These perceptions corroborate research results on the effectiveness of escape rooms as an active methodology in higher education, highlighting their potential to engage students and promote meaningful learning.

A qualitative study was conducted based on the three components of academic motivation: value, expectancy, and affective-emotional. Thirty-three high school students participated in the implementation of a teaching and learning sequence focused on chemical reactions and an introduction to chemical equilibrium, in which motivation was incorporated explicitly. The evaluation instruments consisted of questionnaires centered on motivation and conceptual progress. One of the main findings was that students become more engaged and show greater perseverance in task completion when motivation is explicitly considered in lesson planning, educational materials, and classroom teaching strategies. This research shows that intentionally incorporating motivation significantly enhances the affective component, followed by the value component and, to a lesser extent, the expectancy component.

This work aims to apply a didactic sequence that contextualizes the content of substances and mixtures in a 1st-year high school class, based on the artisanal production of goat milk yogurt made by a producer family living in a rural community in the municipality of Soledade, Paraíba, Brazil. The research has a qualitative nature, and the target audience was a 2nd-year high school class from a public state school, composed of 23 students and a producer family, all from the municipality of Soledade, Paraíba, Brazil. For this, a didactic sequence was developed and applied. The data collection instrument consisted of a questionnaire with two open-ended questions. The data were analyzed using Bardin’s content analysis. Based on the results obtained, it was possible to provide the teaching of content on substances and mixtures to the students through the production of goat milk yogurt.

This work presents a didactic sequence (DS) for teaching key laboratory techniques—continuous and discontinuous extraction, vacuum and atmospheric distillation, steam extraction, and thin-layer chromatography (TLC)—to first-year organic chemistry students. Grounded in inquiry-based learning and investigative methodology, the DS integrates various educational strategies: problem-based learning, theoretical and experimental investigation, and result discussions. The experiments used commercial dental and muscular pain medications and essential oils containing terpenes, analyzed by TLC. Implemented from 2017 to 2019 during seven weekly lab sessions of 3 to 4 hours each in an undergraduate organic chemistry course at Universidade Federal Fluminense, Brazil, the DS aimed to foster students’ deductive reasoning and understanding of the techniques’ interrelations, linking them to real-life medicinal products. The approach increased student engagement and participation, resulting in improved learning outcomes. This improvement was evident both in final exams and in more active and informed classroom discussions compared to previous years.

In the field of sciences, traditional teaching methods, based on exposition and memoristic learning, often generate negative attitudes toward the subject. In contrast, playful and cooperative activities foster positive emotions, which enhance both motivation and meaningful learning. The aim of this research is to design and implement an educational intervention proposal focused on practical activities and experimentation, using challenges and gamification, related to the teaching and learning of matter, its properties, and mixtures, within Block IV – Matter and Energy. The sample consisted of 20 fifth-grade primary school students from a public school in the city of Badajoz (Spain). This program, developed in three 60-minute sessions, generated positive emotions in the students, such as “fun” and “joy,” while improving the learning of scientific concepts and highlighting the fundamental role of women in science, thus contributing to the creation of female role models in this field.

Chemical literacy among university students, assessed using the PISA framework, remains low—particularly among pre-service chemistry teachers. This suggests that current higher education practices have limited impact on improving students’ chemical literacy. One promising approach is inquiry-based learning centered on socio-scientific issues (SSI). This study examines the effect of SSI-based inquiry learning on students’ chemical literacy, focusing on acid–base topics. A quasi-experimental pretest–posttest control group design was used, with data collected through a specially developed chemical literacy test (reliability coefficient R = 0.817). Data analysis involved t-tests and effect size calculations. Results indicate a significant difference between students taught using SSI-based inquiry learning and those taught through traditional methods. The effect size falls within the strong category, confirming the significant positive impact of this approach. These findings demonstrate that integrating SSI into inquiry-based learning effectively enhances chemical literacy in higher education.

Aqueous and alcoholic extracts of red cabbage (Brassica oleracea var. capitata f. rubra) were obtained to analyze their decoloration kinetics in response to sodium metabisulfite and to produce environmentally friendly watercolors with good stability over time. The watercolors were made with water, glycerin, gum arabic, and freeze-dried extract. For the kinetic study, a mobile device with the Carolina® RGB Colorimeter app was used to record color parameters during the reaction. Results indicate first-order degradation kinetics for the alcoholic extract and zero-order kinetics for the aqueous extract.

This study explored the prior knowledge acquired by graduates of upper secondary education and its relationship with the knowledge required for admission to the Faculty of Chemical Sciences at the National University of Asunción. A comparative analysis was conducted between the upper secondary curriculum and the entrance exam content for the industrial area programs of the faculty, complemented by a survey administered to 93 incoming students. The results reveal that, according to the students, the education received during upper secondary school is generally insufficient to face the entrance exam. Only those from the Technical Baccalaureate in Industrial Chemistry rated their prior preparation as good or very good. For the majority, the training was considered inadequate, hindering the achievement of their main goal: university admission. These findings suggest a weak articulation between upper secondary education and the entrance exam requirements, highlighting the need to strengthen academic preparation to improve the performance of future university students.

The French chemist Pierre Joseph Macquer (1718-1784), in addition to his interesting studies on different aspects of Chemistry, had carried out an important contribution to the modernization of this science through his orientations concerning the new nomenclature; these would be transcendental in the success of the Chemical Revolution at the end of the 18th Century. His reflections on the origins of Chemistry from Alchemy are collected in the Discours Préliminaire, with which one of his most important works begins, the Dictionnaire de Chimie (1778). Macquer carries out a simple, but complete journey, from Antiquity to those decisive years of the French Enlightenment, pointing out the etymology of the term, the authors closest to Alchemy, with its hermetic language, as well as other authors who were already beginning the unstoppable path towards Chemistry as a true science. In this paper, the complete translation into Spanish of that Discours is first presented, a document of special interest in the teaching of Chemistry in a historical context.