Photopolymer and Latex Lift Demonstrations: Strategy to Problematize Spaghetti-Like Representation in Polymer Chemistry

Abstract

Despite several technological processes and products found in everyday life involve polymers, it has been neglected in Chemistry Education. In this paper, the using of spaghetti-like representations in polymer teaching was explored. For this, a short course for undergraduate chemistry students was developed and constituted by two didactic sequences. In each of them one demonstrative experiment (latex lift and photopolymerization) was used to promote practices of externalization of visual models. The analysis of the students' drawings and written texts showed demonstrations of problematized concepts relevant to polymer teaching, whereas the effectiveness of spaghetti-like representations' employment requires further research. The initiative was well-founded and satisfactory within an initial exploratory perspective and implementation of this strategy in regular disciplines can promote the increase of students' interest in polymer chemistry, an essential knowledge area for developing countries that need to build their own technologies and innovation. Keywords: visualization in chemistry, spaghetti representation, teaching of polymer.