A horta escolar como instrumento de uma sequência didática na aplicação dos conceitos 4R's da sustentabilidade

Abstract

The objective of this work was to analyze the application of a didactic sequence of the potentially significant teaching unit (UEPS) type, which is the educational product of this research. This sequence was developed to work on the 4 R's of Environmental Sustainability through the implementation of a vegetable garden at the Capitão Cláudio Manoel da Costa State Elementary and Secondary School, located in the municipality of Porto Velho/RO. The R's (rethink, reuse, recycle and reduce) propose to relate socioeconomic development with environmental conservation through changes in human consumption habits in order to meet human needs without depleting environmental resources. Thus, the question that guided the research was: What are the potential that working with a school garden, within the system of a UEPS, can provide for learning the concepts of the 4 R's of environmental sustainability and for raising awareness among students regarding these aspects? ? The research was characterized as qualitative, action research type. Pre-test and post-test and the teacher's logbook were used as collection instruments. The UEPS developed was applied to fifteen students in the 2nd year of high school, enrolled in the elective curricular component called Environmental Sustainability, in the area of ​​Biology. Throughout the eight steps of the UEPS, we sought to work on the concepts starting from the most inclusive, Sustainability, and following the progressive differentiation dealing with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the 4Rs. For the application of the latter, the creation of a school garden was used, which allowed the integrative reconciliation of concepts. The survey of prior knowledge revealed that students had resources for anchoring new concepts. The garden, as a practical activity, allowed new knowledge to be assimilated in a substantive way. In addition to conceptual learning, students were able to learn procedures related to implementing the garden, from separating materials (PET bottles, seeds and food waste); making compost bins; fertilizer production; planting; management and harvesting, and develop important attitudes such as effective interaction with peers and responsibility in group work and in externalizing the concepts learned to the school community. Thus, the research provided an expansion of knowledge and awareness regarding the topic, through the application of theoretical knowledge with practical knowledge, evidenced in the textual productions, in the stages of creating the garden, in the presentation of the work, demonstrating that they were able to assimilate the knowledge related to the topic. It was observed that, of the 4R's, the most evident were recycling, reuse and reduction, the latter with the profile of reducing waste and not in terms of reducing consumption, which is linked to rethinking. Rethinking had the characteristic of thinking before transforming a material, which may still be useful, into waste, that is, into something disposable, signaling the need to work more effectively in the aspect of rethinking before consuming. The educational product resulting from this research is available on the EduCapes website under the number http://educapes.capes.gov.br/handle/capes/743530.