O Arsénico na Água como Controvérsia Sociocientífica para a Formação Crítica de Professores em Questões Ambientais e Alimentares

This paper presents an investigation about the importance of the use of Socio-Scientific Controversies (SSC) in teacher training based on a topic of current interest that encompasses environmental and food education. For this reason, a didactic sequence (DS) is proposed on the environmental problems of arsenic (As) in water and two SSIs are raised: 1) the legal limits of As in water and 2) the contamination of water with As as a result of the urbanization of wetlands. The DS was applied to teachers of a continuous training on Environment, Development and Society in the last year of secondary school. The objective is to know how the use of SSC allows us to incorporate aspects of the nature of science, develop critical thinking and work on motivational and current topics of interest. The results obtained, through validated qualitative and quantitative techniques, show a change in the teachers' conception of these issues.