Poluição luminosa: conscientização sobre os seus impactos através do ensino de astronomia e ciências afins

Abstract

Light pollution and its negative impacts in the most diverse areas is still a topic unknown to most people and little discussed in the academic literature. This is a problem as the way we live with artificial lighting today is unsustainable, requiring urgent awareness of this problem. With this in mind, we sought in this research to discuss the problem of light pollution, proposing awareness activities about its impacts to be developed with elementary school students II (8th and 9th grades) and high school. We also built a didactic guide for educators in Astronomy and related areas, with information, suggestions for activities, experiments and actions on the subject of light pollution. The research presented here falls within the field of qualitative research, since we seek to analyze what effects awareness about the impacts of light pollution can cause in formal and non-formal education environments. The data collection instruments were: initial questionnaire, a field diary and materials constructed for use in lectures, workshops and meetings that took place during the field research. The analysis of the data collected from these instruments showed that light pollution and its impacts is still an unknown topic for most people, and it is necessary to expand discussions on the subject, especially in educational spaces, in order to stimulate awareness about their negative impacts and show how we can contribute to minimizing the problem.