Botany in high school: analysis of environmental perception and botanical blindness in students of a public school in the Amazon of Pará

Abstract

Botany is one of the areas of science that shows great difficulty in assimilating concepts, which justifies the importance of paying greater attention to this discipline. In view of this, this work sought to investigate the environmental perception and occurrence of botanical blindness among students in order to identify the main obstacles in the study of botany in high school. 35 students from the 2nd year of high school at a public school located in the municipality of Moju, Pará participated in the research. The research is based on a qualitative, exploratory approach with technical procedures characteristic of action research. Participant observation, application of mental maps and questionnaire for data collection were used. A descriptive analysis of the data was carried out and the results show that the students have difficulties in learning about botany, since 46% of the students stated that they had already studied about the plant groups (Bryophytes, Pteridophytes, Gymnosperms and Angiosperms) but did not remember the difference existing between them. About the environmental perception, it was noticed that the majority used elements of their daily life to symbolize the environment, such as the houses, trees and animals that make up the environment of their residence. When investigating the occurrence of botanical blindness, it was identified that in 96% of the answers, the students did not perceive the presence of plants in their daily lives. Such results elucidate the urgency of discussing different forms of approaches for teaching and learning botany in public basic education.