Photometrixpro®: uma alternativa para práticas espectrofotométri-cas no ensino de bioquímica

Abstract

Practical activities in the teaching of the biochemistry curricular component are neces-sary for the construction of knowledge to occur, mainly because they have contents that are difficult to understand. During the pandemic, face-to-face classes were re-placed by Emergency Remote Teaching (ERE) to maintain social isolation. However, it was impossible to carry out practical classes, which affected several areas, including biochemistry. In this sense, the objective of this work was to verify the understanding of biochemistry contents, such as biomolecules and analytical instruments for their measurements. In addition, we sought to verify the use of the smartphone application (App), PhotometrixPRO®, for practical spectrophotometry classes. For this, a synchro-nous workshop was carried out with 1) the contextualization of biomolecules, analytical instruments of spectrophotometry and the App, 2) sending of activities and, 3) the re-alization of a practical class with measurements of a sample in a synchronous remote with the App. The analysis and evaluation of the activities took place in synchronous and asynchronous moments with students (n = 8) of the undergraduate courses in Chemical Engineering, Food Engineering, Chemistry and Natural Sciences. At the end of the workshop, we compared the data from the participants' practical activity with those from a benchtop spectrophotometer, in addition to evaluating the activities sent, student interaction in the meetings held and the effects of the activities proposed in the workshop on the teaching-learning process through the student's vision. The activities sent by the students were as expected, since they were able to answer all the ques-tions within what was taught in the virtual meetings. It was possible to produce the construction of knowledge in the areas of biochemistry (biomolecules), chemistry (an-alytical area) and mathematics (dilution of solutions). The students interacted, even at a distance, since digital platforms (Google Classroom), email and the workshop group via WhatsApp were also used. Using PhotometrixPRO® allowed all students to take readings like the laboratory bench spectrophotometer. This work showed the im-portance of holding workshops as forms of curricular extension, in addition to the ac-cessibility of an analytical instrument for practical spectrophotometric classes in bio-chemistry.