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It's Raining Microplastics! Now What?
Original title: Está chovendo microplásticos! E agora?
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This Brazilian-language paper describes classroom activities for high school students exploring microplastic pollution through the lens of organic chemistry and polymer science, developed during the COVID-19 pandemic. Students engaged with the 'it's raining microplastics' theme to learn about real-world environmental chemistry. It is an environmental chemistry education paper.
It's raining microplastics! And now?. This paper describes in-person and online interventions, designed for the pandemic moment, with third-year high school students from a state school in the Baixada Fluminense, RJ, with the objective of exploring the generator theme Plastics and Microplastics in the teaching of organic chemistry/polymers. The design was based on the guidelines of the Common National Curriculum Base, the curriculum of the State of Rio de Janeiro, PNLD 2021 textbooks and the Sustainable Development Goals of the UNESCO Agenda 2030. Results show that the subject, so present in our daily lives, was practically unknown by the students, and serve to reinforce is the necessity to discuss and develop this theme in elementary and secondary education. In addition to promote Chemistry teaching by bringing students closer to science and technology, it was also possible to promote critical reasoning and reflections about sustainable consumption and proper disposal of plastic waste.
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This is a brief academic note or abstract from a Brazilian educational research program examining how plastics and microplastics can serve as a teaching theme for polymer chemistry in the context of sustainability. It appears to be a thesis or project summary rather than a full primary research article.
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This experience report describes a secondary school investigative didactic sequence in Brazil on microplastics in the human body, guiding 10th-grade students from initial hypothesis through flipped classroom activities to experimental investigation. The project successfully engaged students with environmental science and raised awareness of personal microplastic exposure.
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This educational paper describes how microplastic contamination in marine organisms was incorporated as a final degree project theme for undergraduate chemistry students in Spain. The authors discuss how environmental research topics can effectively engage students in practical analytical chemistry training.
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A Portuguese citizen-science project engaged over 500 middle-school students in testing coastal water quality and learning about microplastic pollution through hands-on chemistry investigations. The program significantly improved students' attitudes toward chemistry and their conceptual understanding of water parameters and polymers compared to a control group, demonstrating that microplastic science can be an effective hook for building broader scientific literacy in young people.
Research digests by email
When a large batch of papers lands in the Atlas, we read through it and send a short write-up of what stood out.