The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the Green Chemistry Teaching and Learning Community. In 2020, universities and schools were forced to move towards online education. Digital technologies offer opportunities that facilitate some educational methods; however, they also can become barriers for an Inclusive Green Chemistry Education. Thousands of deaf students faced many difficulties with online teaching tools in Brazil. Unfortunately, this migration from face-to-face teaching to remote teaching increased the dropout rate among students in schools. Many reasons for this increase in dropouts were reported, for example non-attendance of a sign language interpreter and the absence of inclusive teaching methods. This urgent reality requires a pedagogical rethink. From this perspective, this work proposed and evaluated strategies to promote interactions between hearing teachers and deaf students during online classes of chemistry. Our method was applied to high school students in a public college in Brazil. Chemistry teachers and translator-interpreters of Brazilian Sign Language (Libras) planned the lessons. They worked together for more interactive and visual classes. Visualization tools are important to teach chemistry, according to Mahaffy's model. Our project was divided into five stages: survey questions (1), case study (2), visual-educational activity (3), interactions with social media (4) and (5) final test, which were approved by the Research Ethics Committee. Results showed that Libras is essential for communication. We confirmed a positive impact on the learning of students and an effective interest into sustainable development. Using social media ensured a constant communication with students. In conclusion, our inclusive methodology allowed introducing some principles of Green Chemistry in high school classes online. We helped deaf students to stay focused and develop metacognitive skills during the COVID-19 pandemic. An inclusion of participants was possible with a Systems Thinking perspective. We hope that new inclusive approaches should be a priority for Green Chemistry Teaching and Learning Community.

Promoting teacher-student interactions in green chemistry education: An inclusive approach for deaf students during the COVID-19 pandemic

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