O papel da educação ambiental frente aos riscos de pandemias: problematizando com estudantes do ensino fundamental

Abstract

The interconnection between environmental impacts, pandemics and unique health, the relationship between human, animal and environmental health, highlights the pressing need for Environmental Education as a fundamental path towards understanding the complex relationships between human, animal health and the environment. The implementation of Environmental Education in schools emerges as a vital approach to encourage reflection on human actions in the environment. This can occur through active teaching and learning that encourages students to become conscious agents of change, empowering them to adopt sustainable behaviors and contribute to preventing pandemics and promoting global health. In this monograph, the objectives were to identify spontaneous concepts that students bring after their experience in the pandemic, identify and analyze the possibilities and effects of environmental awareness, promoting learning through problematization about environmental impacts and their relationship with the emergence of pandemics, all of this under the umbrella of One Health. This work is defined as a descriptive qualitative research developed with elementary school students in Cachoeira do Sul, RS. The research took place through 5 Environmental Workshops, exploring the themes of One Health, environmental impacts caused by human action and the COVID-19 pandemic. The analyzes were based on observations and analysis of materials produced by students during the workshops. Through observations, it was possible to notice the negative connotation related to the word pandemic, which was revealed through inconvenient feelings expressed in their speeches and the demonstration of a critical understanding of the consequences of COVID-19. Furthermore, during the workshops there was a growing capacity to problematize the effects and relationships of environmental impacts on the environment and pandemics, as well as on the interconnections of human, animal and environmental health, that is, the understanding of One Health. This monograph, then, emphasizes the importance of teaching-learning strategies with an environmental focus to motivate, raise awareness and impact students in the basic education network.