Projeto Saberes da Mata Atlântica: Percepção ambiental e científica de estudantes do entorno do Parque Estadual da Serra do Brigadeiro (MG)

Abstract

Objetivou-se analisar a percepção de estudantes da educação básica de quatro escolas públicas do entorno do Parque Estadual da Serra do Brigadeiro sobre o bioma Mata Atlântica. Adotando-se abordagem de pesquisa mista, utilizou-se evocação livre e aplicação de questionário para 150 estudantes. Os dados, submetidos à análise de conteúdo, revelaram a existência de percepção equivocada quanto a aspectos geográficos e de conservação da Mata Atlântica. Embora os estudantes tenham apresentado conhecimento acerca de espécies nativas, também relacionaram espécies exóticas ao bioma. Sugere-se o desenvolvimento de abordagens pedagógicas formais e não-formais baseadas na Educação Ambiental biorregionalista.

Contact with natural areas influences Brazilian high school students’ ability to recognize native plant species

“…The plant species best known by students are those that are close to them and which their fruits are consumed in their diet, in accordance with authors, reinforcing the importance of direct experience to acquire knowledge about plants and animals (Campos et al 2012;Patrick et al 2013;Agrizzi et al 2020). For example, cashew (A. occidentale), pitomba (T. esculenta), guava (P. guajava), mango (M. indica), and acerola (M. emarginata), which were the most recognized, likely because the students have personal experience with them, either through their inclusion in the diet (such as fresh fruits, nuts, pseudo fruits, juices, pulps, sweets, beverages, jellies, among others) (Vieira & Gusmão 2006;Sebrae Nacional 2016;Serrano & Pessoa 2016), through backyard cultivation, or the reforestation of public roads (Moraes et al 2016a;b;Prefeitura Municipal de Teresina 2017).…”

“…However, they do not know how plants grow in their backyards (Driessnack 2009), which suggests the lack of connection with the place where they live. Research applied to Brazilian Primary School students demonstrated that exotic plant species are mentioned among the native plant species (Silveira & Farias 2009;Miyazawa et al 2015;Proença et al 2017;Agrizzi et al 2020). This happens, mainly, due to the low quantity of native flora examples in Brazilian textbooks (Sales & Landim 2009;Marinho et al 2015;Purificação & Lopes 2018), media (television broadcasts, cartoons, TV series), Botany classes (Towata et al 2010) or a utilitarian vision of natural environment for example (Bitencourt et al 2011).…”

“…Thus, obtaining information about the plant species known by young students and the affecting factors of this knowledge is essential to guide methodologies in teaching Botany. Although researchers have investigated the study of Botany in the school environment (see Bitencourt et al 2011;Silva & Ghilardi-Lopes 2014;Agrizzi et al 2020), little is known about how the contact with natural environment and television programs dedicated to Botany, for example, can influence Brazilian students' capacity to recognize species. Moreover, different European and North American authors suggest that the species' identification (referred here as recognition), of either flora or fauna, is a viable teaching strategy, considering that students tend to identify a plant or animal (from visual stimuli) rather than mention their name spontaneously (Palmberg et al 2015;Rosalino et al 2017;Aruguete et al 2019;Hooykaas et al 2019).…”