An interdisciplinary approach to address aquatic environmental issues with young students from Brazil

Abstract

Environmental education aims to change the perception of people about the environment. Primary education (four to eleven years old) is a fundamental stage in the development of children’s conduct, so enhancing learning of the environment in which they live is essential for them to start recognizing nature as part of their life. We tested students’ perception before (pre-test) and after (post-test) a specific environmental education activity elaborated in a ludic and interdisciplinary way (psychological, biological, performing arts and educational perspectives), with more moments of practice than only theoretical or rhetorical. Our study showed that schools located in cities with low Municipal Human Development Index (MHDI) can present satisfactory results in relation to students’ environmental perception (hypothesis 1), that this perception does not differ according to nationwide educational indexes such as the Brazilian Basic Education Development Index (IDEB) (2), and that regardless of MHDI, there is an increase in this perception after environmental education activities, even a single activity (3). The developed methodology was effective in changing students’ environmental perception, and can be used in an interdisciplinary way, even when resources are scarce.

Keywords:

• education for sustainable development (ESD)
• active learning
• urban ecology
• behavioural psychology
• aquatic ecosystem
• learning through play

Disclosure statement

The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose.

Additional information

Funding

This work was financed by the Superintendência de Ciência, Tecnologia e Ensino Superior do Paraná (SETI-PR), University Without Borders Program, under grant number 159/2018-UEM; and financed in part by the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - Brasil (CAPES) - Finance Code 001; and Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico - Brasil (CNPq).