The Atlantic Forest taught me: reflections on student learning based on the experiences of an Environmental Education project in Itu (SP, Brazil)

Abstract

Environmental Education, whether formal or informal, is an important way to teach and reflect on the importance of nature, its diversity and, especially, to change attitudes through awareness and thus contribute to environmental protection and conservation. This study aims to analyze the Primary and Middle School students learning that participated in the environmental education project "Learning from the Atlantic Forest" in 2019 from the nature experiences activities in Experiments Center Forest SOS Atlantic Forest in the city of Itu (SP, Brasil). This is qualitative research in which data collection was made with open survey with the participation of 32 schools and 1256 answers. From the analysis of the students' reports, data processing and categorization were carried out to facilitate understanding and the word cloud graphic resource (WC) was used to identify the frequency of words in bulky texts. Most of the students who visited the Experiments Center live in Itu and region (90.4%) and the rest in São Paulo and surroundings (9.6%). The answers given by elementary and high school students with the highest percentages, respectively, were: biodiversity - 33.1% and 31.8%; forest restoration - 25.6% and 14.9%; Atlantic Forest remnants - 10% and 14.8% and relationship between water and forest - 12.2% and 11.2%. These answers indicate that environmental education held in contact with nature promotes the individual awareness of citizenship formation which takes into account nature conservation and Ecotourism