Current serious environmental issues, such as deforestation, compel compulsory school education on the need for reflection on pedagogical practices to promote education for environmental sustainability. The educational process about the “tree as living being” requires that content and attitudinal dimensions be deeply integrated. Therefore, meaningful learning of biological similarity—between tree and animal—needs to be prioritised. It will promote the development of tree protection attitudes. Under this approach, an action research was developed to contribute to a future primary teacher education model. A didactic-pedagogical intervention was designed. It was implemented to assess the educational potential of infrared thermography in the development of ecocentric education. A group of students attending the 3rd year of primary education participated in this qualitative case study. The results revealed that ecocentric conceptions were constructed bringing these children closer to scientific knowledge. It resulted in the development of conservation/protection tree attitudinal learning. It is also worth mentioning the contribution of this study to (re)think (re)construction of the formative process of future primary teachers in order to: direct the teaching–learning process to environment real problems; and to promote the necessary debate on the contribution of technology to achieve innovation of pedagogical practices.
Trees are essential natural resources for ecosystem balance, regional development, and urban greening. Preserving trees has become a crucial challenge for society. It is common for the use of invasive or even destructive techniques for health diagnosis of these living structures, and interventions after visual inspection. Therefore, the dissemination and implementation of increasingly less aggressive techniques for inspection, analysis and monitoring techniques are essential. The latest high-definition thermal cameras record thermal images of high resolution and sensitivity. Infrared thermography (IRT) is a promising technique for the inspection of trees because the tissue of the sap is practically on the surface of the living structure. The thermograms allow the identification of deteriorated tissues and to differentiate them from healthy tissues, and make an observation of the tree as a functional whole body. The aim of this study is to present, based on differences in the temperatures field given by the thermal images, a qualitative analysis of the status of two different arboreal species, Quercus pyrenaica Willd and Olea europaea L. The results show the IRT as an expeditious, non-invasive and promising technique for tree inspection, providing results that are not possible to reach by other methods and much less by a visual inspection. The work represents a contribution to make IRT a tree decision-making tool on the health status of trees.
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