In this work, the path between the doing and understanding of students in a soap production course was addressed. The students' traditional knowledge in soap making was used as an intermediary in the process of teaching chemistry applied to soap making. The course started with an initial assessment of the students' prior knowledge about the composition and chemical reactions involved in soap production. In this stage, the mastery of the field of doing was verified, but not of understanding. Based on this assessment, the course was designed to allow students to search for hypotheses and reflect on the concepts of chemistry and the reactions involved in soap production. Sequentially, the students were encouraged to seek methodologies to test their hypotheses. During the practical stage of making different soap recipes, the concepts and chemical reactions involved in the processes were discussed in dialogues between the teacher and the students. The same initial questionnaire was applied in the last classes and it was found that there was a change in the interpretation of the soap making process and that chemical concepts involved were incorporated into the students' language. ; Neste trabalho, foi abordado o percurso existente entre o fazer e o compreender de estudantes de um curso de produção de sabão. O conhecimento tradicional das alunas na fabricação de sabão foi utilizado como intermediador no processo de ensino de química aplicado a fabricação de sabão. O curso teve início com um questionário para avaliação dos conhecimentos prévios das alunas sobre a composição do sabão e as reações químicas envolvidas na produção dos mesmos. Nesta etapa, foi constatado o domínio do campo do fazer, mas não da parte teórica envolvida. A partir desta avaliação, o curso foi planejado para permitir às alunas a construção de hipóteses e reflexões sobre temas, tais como: processos de saponificação, ação e mecanismo de limpeza, biodegradabilidade, impacto ambiental e as reações envolvidas na produção de sabão. Sequencialmente, as ...