Projetos de geoeducação no Caçapava Geoparque Mundial da Unesco: perspectivas, avanços e inovações

Abstract

The municipality of Caçapava do Sul, located in the center-south of the state of Rio Grande do Sul, was recognized in 2015, through law 14,708, as the “Gaucho Capital of Geodiversity”, for its unique geological and geomorphological heritage. From this recognition and in the search for a meaningful teaching of contents in the areas of geology and paleontology, the idea of holding a geoeducational event to celebrate this title arose. Geodia, which began in 2015, integrates the necessary initiatives for the certification of a geopark, and can, currently, be considered one of the bases for the certification of Caçapava do Sul as a UNESCO Global Geopark, which took place in this year of 2023. The movement to evaluate the knowledge of educators in the municipality about geomorphology, geology and geomonuments in the municipality began in 2013 and pointed out several misconceptions about the subjects. In addition, there are several indicators that point to a deficit in relation to education in the municipality of Caçapava do Sul, such as the non-compliance with a large part of the sustainable development objectives (SDGs) of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. With regard to “quality education”, Caçapava do Sul is currently in the red for age appropriateness in the grades, has low grades in the National High School Examination in the areas of Human Sciences and Nature and students below the expected learning average of Final Years and High School according to the Basic Education Development Index. In this way, it is extremely important to develop geoeducational activities and provide greater support for teaching Geosciences in the municipality, since it has great potential to work on geology and paleontology with the use of local examples, which can bring students closer to the territory and its singularities. Therefore, the aim of the work is to carry out a survey and evaluate the geoeducation activities that occur in the territory of the Caçapava Geopark, which corresponds to the area of the municipality. The methodological procedures consist of bibliographic research for a better understanding of the subject studied and the application of interviews with people involved in the promotion of geoeducation in the Caçapava Geopark. Furthermore, there was observation and participation in geoeducation activities developed in the municipality of Caçapava do Sul in non-formal environments. Throughout the research, tools were presented for the development of geoeducation in the territory, such as teaching models in the midst of nature and proposals for paleontology workshops, in addition to materials adapted by the author. The results consist of a description of all activities and materials existing in the territory for the promotion of geoeducation such as Geodia, teaching guide, games, children's book and the Activity Menu, in addition to the presentation of the interviewees' answers and observations made in the experiences. In this sense, it is considered that geoeducation activities are actively occurring in the territory, but require greater coverage.