EDUCATIONAL INTERVENTION WITH HIGH SCHOOLERS ABOUT SEXUALLY TRANSMITTED DISEASES

The aim of this study was to contribute to the teaching of STDs in high schools. The study was based on the research about the STD knowledge of 61 students in two schools from the city of Rio Claro - SP (a state-run school and a private one). A questionnaire (pre-test) and an interview with two biology teachers, one from each school, were used for such purpose. The results indicated that, in general, students in private schools knew more about the subject. The public school students showed more difficulty with the knowledge of STD symptoms. In both schools the knowledge of the subject proved generic and superficial. The biology teachers state that they teach the content, and the teaching material contains sexuality and STD themes. Once these results were obtained, an intervention with students was developed by using a methodology including group dynamics and dialogue lectures. After the intervention, there was an increase in the percentage of the students' correct answers in both schools (post-test), which shows that it has been effective. We conclude that this paper has achieved its goal to enlighten students on the topic, but schools fail to have a better dialogue with students to better plan such content, as expected learning is not being achieved although teaching is provided.