LEARNING CHEMISTRY REQUIRES MUCH SWEAT: DEODORANTS AND ANTIPERSPIRANTS AS A CURIOUS AND CONTEXTUALIZED TEACHING PROPOSAL

Quality Chemistry teaching enables citizens to gather knowledge that may be used for the common good and to raise society’s awareness of the impact of its actions on the environment by developing methods and theories to investigate the world in the search for improvement. Chemistry has not been well understood by most high school students because it has been taught as an abstract issue, far from reality, unusable, something that must be learned by rote. Therefore, this study aimed at proposing a theme that is part of students’ everyday lives to attract them to better understand chemical concepts. Based on this assumption, the theme “DEODORANTS AND ANTIPERSPIRANTS” enabled personal hygiene to be integrated into the contextualization of Chemistry teaching. Deodorants are highly consumed products due to their efficiency and practicality. However, they carry aluminum (Al) in their composition. Some studies have shown that this chemical element may cause certain diseases, such as dermatitis, Alzheimer’s and even breast cancer. Students that attend the Instituto Federal do Triângulo Mineiro - Campus Uberlândia Centro (IFTM – UDICENTRO), in Uberlândia, Minas Gerais (MG) state, Brazil, are expected to develop awareness of the use of this personal hygiene product and to look at them critically. Students should learn to observe labels of different brands to find out whether they mention that they are aluminum-free or have it at certain concentrations.