Layers of science: making soaps

by Paula Cordeiro and Cinde de Sousa

At Aprendizes, our goal is to provide incredible educational value and teach sciences in a fun, engaging way while learning about the Earth with a sustainable approach. 

Active Learning

Our active learning approach often uses the five strategies to engage students in a science class: allowing them to choose some activities and making them feel like real scientists developing real experiences, using real data, like we do, by collecting, for instance, data from the soil at our vegetable garden, applying these activities to real life. Seeing them smiling at the sweet potatoes we have been growing is wonderful.

Soap Science Lab

Making soaps was one of our most recent experiments. Soap comes in many varieties and forms, and the uses for soaps are just as expansive as the scents we can use to produce them. The first approach to soap making was domestic. People made their soaps by mixing animal fats with lye and boiling them. We explored the nature of soaps and their chemical origin in class, developing a soap science lab. In this chemistry science project, our students carried the chemical steps to transform used fat from the kitchen and natural ingredients into a usable soap bar. Adding values of concern with the environmental impact and awareness about what we consume in our daily lives, the workshop brings tools for the natural production of cosmetics, such as soap, shampoo, and creams, with natural ingredients, without toxic or allergic additives.  

Soaps being produced in class are real soaps that students can take home, and use for personal hygiene, also exploring zero-waste alternative ways to clean up without impacting the Planet.

#learning #project #sustainable #science #environmental #cosmetics #chemistry