Developing Environmental and Scientific Education in School

Abstract

Initiatives involving notions of environmental education and scientific education were stimulated in a state secondary school (Niterói, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), using practical and dynamic activities undertaken with pupils aged from 15 to 17 years old during an entire academic year. Each activity had a specific organization, with its own goals, targets, and a schedule for completing tasks, as well as staggered participation by the pupils involved. The variety of activities allowed pupils to be assigned according to their specific skills and interests. The aim of the project was to foster commitment in pupils in their day-to-day performance of activities, thereby helping create habits in accordance with an environmental and scientific education. The implementation of this project afforded the pupils the opportunity to plan actions which would allow ideas to be put into practice, turning them into reality. As well as teaching them subject matter from the curriculum, the actions undertaken also enable the teaching of auxiliary strategies to promote better eating habits and minimize the amount of organic waste discarded. Cultivating vegetable gardens in crates only requires small spaces, and raw vegetable peelings thrown in the bin were used to create organic compost for the garden itself. Activities such as these contribute towards making the school not just a place for formal education, but also a centre for teaching and disseminating measures that could yield immediate results in terms of raising the quality of life of the school community.

Keywords

• composting
• environmental education
• formal education
• scientific education
• vegetable garden