Herbário de plantas medicinais para o ensino de botânica

Abstract

Herbarium is a collection of samples of dehydrated plants, which are collected, prepared, treated, cataloged and stored according to specific techniques. Herbariums contain a large amount of information and data on plant diversity, such as conservation, ecology, physiology, pharmacology and agronomy. A didactic herbarium allows interaction between students and science and biology subjects, in which they will demonstrate better performance in the teaching-learning process. Thus, the present work aimed to evaluate the implementation of a botanical collection in the form of a herbarium, with an emphasis on medicinal plants to assist the teaching and learning in Botany of students of the 7th year of Elementary School. The methodology used in the research was qualitative research due to the evaluative nature of the study. The data collection instruments were bibliographic review and field research. The field research was carried out in the following stages: 1. Theoretical class on herbalization techniques; 2. Collection of botanical material; 3. Conversation Wheel; 4. Herbarium production; 5. Practical class on Leaf Morphology and 6. Text production. The development of the research allowed us to identify that the students did not have knowledge about herborization techniques and about its importance for the study of the characteristics of the plants. After the theoretical class, the students were able to describe concepts about the herbarium. The plant species collected were: Gossipidium herbaceum L., Ruta graveolens L., Plectranthus barbatus, Cinnamomum zeylanicum, Cymbopogon citratus, Melissa officinalis L., Senna westernis (L.), Mentha villosa, Phyllanthus niruri L., Justicia acuminatissima. The conversation circle was an important moment to identify students' popular knowledge regarding the medicinal use of plants collected in their homes. The texts produced by the students revealed that there was learning about the morphology of the leaves, about the technique of herborization and about the medicinal importance of the plants. Therefore, we concluded that the implantation of the botanical collection favored the learning of the leaf morphology content by the researched students