Chemistry, education and health: The impact of mineral salts on human health
Keywords:
Health, Contextualization, Chemistry TeachingAbstract
Foods have nutrients that stand out for their specific chemical functions and particular physicochemical properties, and these certain characteristics play a fundamental role in the body, each having its specificities, directly influencing its functions and processes in the human body. In the context of the teaching of Chemistry, a subject that has received prominence is the chemistry associated with food, proposed in the official documents for teaching. The present study is focused on the application of contextualized themes during a chemistry class taught to high school students. This action was developed in the school environment, specifically by students belonging to the PET-Chemistry group of the Federal University of Campina Grande, whose main objective is to introduce and highlight the theme "Chemistry and health: Benefits of Mineral Salts for our health" as a relevant subject in the context of chemistry and in the daily life of students. According to the results, the students stated that they learned new fundamentals about the health benefits of mineral salts through the lecture, which is a promising indicator of the educational impact underlying this activity. In addition, most of them showed to be aware of the importance of consuming foods rich in mineral salts, thus highlighting the need for continuous dissemination of information on the subject.
