Popular knowledge, common sense and science: articulating knowledge through medicinal plants in the education of young people and adults

Abstract

Considering that popular knowledge and scientific knowledge can be approached in an articulated way to favor the construction of knowledge and for the more critical formation of students, this work presents an experience report on a sequence of classes developed in the context of night-time high school, in a state school in a city in the south of Minas Gerais. The strategies used to approach the theme Medicinal Plants from the perspectives of popular knowledge and scientific knowledge were: survey of students' experiences, presentation of therapeutic properties passed on from generation to generation and scientific works that assess structures and properties of plants, beyond discussions that involved professional and personal relationships with the theme. We noticed that the students were encouraged to build and reconstruct ideas and concepts about medicinal plants, beyond showing changes in their conceptions about Science and scientific work.