The Approach to Aromatherapy and Essential Oils Extraction as a Generating Theme for Teaching Organic Chemistry

Teaching Chemistry involves knowledge that helps to explain natural phenomena. Despite this, it faces adversities both to be taught and to be learned. Therefore, this work proposes the theme of aromatherapy in an essential oil extraction workshop as a methodology for contextualizing the teaching of Organic Chemistry. The workshops took place during the 9th Academic Week of the IFFluminense Campus Itaperuna, lasting 15-20 minutes, for 180 students. The workshop was structured in the approach of the Three Pedagogical Moments and used extraction techniques by steam drag, hydrodistillation and by Soxhlet using cloves, cinnamon sticks and peppermint as plant material. 3D-printed molecules of the major compounds of the oils were also used to visualize the structures. The results were evaluated through pre- and post-workshop questionnaires. Through the questionnaires, questions relevant to the reality of Brazilian education can be observed, and that after the workshop 80% of the students said they felt motivated to study Organic Chemistry, in addition to the 10.6% increase in correct answers in the question: “Do you know which is the element considered the ‘building block’ of life?”.