INTERDISCIPLINARITY AND EXPERIMENTATION IN THE SCIENCE CLUB: AN EXPERIENCE REPORT ON A SUSTAINABLE SAPONIFICATION WORKSHOP

Abstract

The improper disposal of residual vegetable oil constitutes a serious contemporary environmental challenge. In this context, this paper reports on a sustainable saponification workshop developed within the scope of the Institutional Teaching Initiation Bio Scholarship Program (PIBID), at a state public school located in the municipality of Angicos/RN, Brazil. The central objective was to promote environmental education and the interdisciplinary teaching of Chemistry and Physics through the reuse of oily waste. The methodology, of an exploratory-descriptive and experimental nature, was structured in three stages: a sensitization and oil collection campaign; a practical workshop mediated by the scholarship students; and a qualitative analysis of the final product.The results demonstrated the valorization of 6 liters of oil, converted into soap bars with effective surfactant and cleaning properties. From a pedagogical perspective, the intervention enabled the didactic transposition of concepts such as dissolution enthalpy, viscosity, and surface tension, integrating theory and practice in a contextualized manner. It is concluded that the proposal is technically feasible and highly replicable, highlighting the role of the Science Club and PIBID in consolidating youth protagonism and initial teacher training by strengthening the ties between academic knowledge and the demands of basic education and sustainability.