Geoethics and Sustainable Soil Use: From the Curriculum to the Brazilian Classrooms in Elementary Education

Abstract

In 2015, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO-UN) declared soil a finite natural resource in the face of anthropogenic use, occupation, and exploitation. The importance of soil for maintaining life and other natural resources must be adequately addressed in the curricula for natural sciences and geography teaching. The National Common Curricular Base � BNCC, defined for elementary education in Brazil, and the Paulista Curriculum, specific for the state of Sao Paulo, imply that full training related to sustainability requires the student to have competencies intrinsic to the socio-environmental values development and decision. Resorting to field and laboratory activities on the soil in the classroom, it was possible to approach geoethics when discussing the valorisation of georesources. The educational actions involving the inseparability between human activity and the impacts on abiotic cycles were simultaneously addressed in line with the curricular recommendations (BNCC and Paulista Curriculum). Thus, using the natural resource soil, students participated in activities involving environmental awareness, water consumption/preservation, air pollution, waste reduction, and sustainable consumption, among others. This work addressed the teaching of the soil as an irreplaceable resource for protecting life and environmental balance in elementary school, resorting to geoethics as an approach that allowed the development of non-cognitive competencies related to the environment, such as reflection, awareness, and argumentation. The meaningful impact on students made it worth highlighting this geoethics approach to increase knowledge and develop competencies.