Educação ambiental popular: representações sociais dos educandos sobre a entomologia no ensino de ciências

Abstract

The research emerges as a demand for environmental education, considering the phenomenon of urban expansion that affects the municipality of Santa Maria - RS towards the crisis of modernity. The choice for the educational setting is justified by the challenges encountered in developing activities that relate science content to the problems of local reality. In front, the research was carried out in a municipal school in a peripheral neighborhood, which includes in its school community members who experience the social and environmental impacts resulting from the pollution of the Cadena Creek, daily encountering a great diversity of insects that inhabit the nearby areas. from the stream. In the centrality of the research, there is consistency in intervening in the school reality through environmental education actions in order to analyze the students' social representations about insects and highlight the importance of studying them at school, paying attention to the human-insect dynamics. environment by an ecological and intercultural approach, which enables a more integrated curriculum on this subject by problematizing learning, concerned with the reality of the students. Data collection occurred through open question forms distributed to students and theoretical and practical activities, all based on Jodelet (2001) Moscovici (2004) and Abric (2000). Data exploration was done through content analysis (BARDIN, 2016). As a result of this research, the social representations about the insects were identified, the lines were deeply analyzed, exploring their meanings, which allowed us to understand the proper language and the context in which the students are inserted. Therefore, it was possible to build alternative ways of teaching and learning in the school environment, which bring the students closer to the insects and the problems of Arroio Cadena, contributing to the improvement of these interrelations and the promotion of popular environmental education.