Percepção ambiental da caatinga: avaliação entre estudantes dos anos finais (6º ao 9º ano) do ensino fundamental de uma escola do sertão pernambucano

Abstract

The works that address environmental education have been increasingly frequent in academia, proving to be essential and of great importance for the formation of a more sustainable society, since, in view of the discovery of the knowledge that citizens have about the environment, it is possible to guide them towards better ways of life, prioritizing the conservation and preservation of ecosystems. With this, the present work aimed to evaluate the perception of students in the final years of elementary school (6th to 9th grade) of a private school in the municipality of Serra Talhada, in the hinterland of Pernambuco, about the domain of the caatinga. Data collection took place in August and September 2022, with 39 students, where 25 were female and 14 male, aged between 11 and 15 years old, using children's graphics, audience application and lecture presentation education as methodological instruments. The students' environmental perception of the caatinga domain is Naturalist/Naturalizing, which reflects a vision of untouched nature, without human presence. The drawings of the 8th grade students were richer in details and with more complete representations of the habitat, with no differences between the sexes in terms of their representations. As for attendance, the students' greatest difficulties were concentrated on abiotic aspects, with males and 8th graders presenting better results between the two responses. The presentation of the educational lecture, held after the making of the first studies and experimental experiments, denoted an important moment in the construction of the students' knowledge, since the results of the studies and experiments carried out after this act enjoyed improvements in relation to the first one. However, even living in the ecosystem portrayed in the research, the students still have little knowledge about the biotic and, mainly, abiotic aspects, with that, it is necessary to have projects aimed at the conservation and preservation of caatinga environments among the inhabitants of locations with such domain, in order to have a more conscious society about the care of the ecosystem.