This research aimed to evaluate the knowledge and involvement of the public high school students (15-20 years) from the city of Mãe D'Água, Paraíba, related to medicinal plants and to promote the construction of knowledge in this area through a teaching practice. The study had three distinct moments: questionnaire application consisting of 9 affirmations structured according to the Likert scale model and 6 questions; Practical didactic experience with the students and; Reapplication of the questionnaire. The students had little knowledge about ethnobotany, medicinal plants and their use. However, after the didactic experience, a significant increase of this knowledge was observed, such as correctly conceptualizing Ethnobotany and what are medicinal plants. Knowledge about medicinal plants was mainly acquired from grandparents. The leaves are the part they most use for medicinal purposes. Before the practice, 24.5% believed that medicinal plants did not cause health damage, 67.3% considered their effects to be moderate. After the didactic practice, these percentages changed to 8.2% and 51%, respectively. Didactic practice was effective in mediating and improving this knowledge. The students, before and after didactic practice, considered important the study of medicinal plants in the discipline of Biology to inform about its different aspects, such as: ecological, botanical (morphological and taxonomic). There is a strong need for the inclusion of teaching on medicinal plants in the school curriculum, so that there is the construction of knowledge and promotion of the valuation and use of these plants present in the community in which the students live.