Perception of Pre-Service Chemistry Teachers about Detergency: From Macroscopic Observations to Symbolic Theoretical Mental models applied to inactivation of SARS-CoV-2

This study deals with an experimental proposal and the elaboration of schemes to address the topic of lipids and the effects of detergents in SARS-CoV-2 at the molecular level. The proposal was applied to undergraduate chemistry students (pre-service chemistry teachers). In addition to conceptual learning, the objectives were: 1) to explore or develop procedural, attitudinal, and cognitive skills of future teachers; and 2) to analyze the ability to correlate experimental observations with real phenomena, such as the theoretical interpretation of SARS-CoV-2 inactivation by detergents. Data were obtained from individual reports and schemes constructed by students and analyzed using the Content Analysis method. The main results indicated that the development of experimental activity with pre-service chemistry teachers can encourage them to reason scientifically about simple daily phenomena and favor them to develop scientific literacy. However, the students had difficulty in formulating chemical symbolic hypotheses to explain macroscopically observed phenomena and to explain theoretically everyday situations.