We investigated the Chemistry teaching to initial years of basic education. Initially, we analyzed the results of previous investigations, which constitute the academic view on the subject. These works, covering almost two decades, indicate that Chemistry occupies little space in the elementary school curriculum, receiving a fragmented treatment by the textbooks and being rarely recognized by teachers as having relevant content. Next, we analyzed 182 activities, proposed by 12 approved collections of textbooks in the Brazilian Program of Textbooks 2007, and classified them into categories that clearly show the importance given to chemical knowledge. Only two collections fit into a desirable profile for the presentation of these activities in the prospectus for schools. Also, among 11 different chemical phenomena, the activities concentrate on just two. We conclude by suggesting that these books have not have contributed substantially to an appropriate elementary Chemistry teaching.
Chemistry teaching; Elementary school; Experimentation; Textbooks
