Aproveitamento da água pluvial na escola: por uma educação ambiental crítica e transformadora

Abstract

The aim of this research was to identify and analyze the contributions granted by a rainwater harvesting system in an educational institution, as pedagogical strategy to approach interdisciplinary Environmental Education. The research was developed in a public municipal middle school, counting with the school community’s participation (teachers, students and staff members). The methodology was divided into the following main actions: diagnosis concerning the school community’s environmental perception, data collection of the implantation area and construction of a sustainable rainwater harvesting system involving all school subjects, knowledge brokerage regarding the environmental issues focusing on sustainability challenges and analyses of the collected data. As the research reached conclusion, it was noticeable that the development of a different project in the institution, concerning the social-environmental issues, contributed to an improvement, even though it is incipient regarding the environmental perception observed in the beginning of the research. The implementation of the rainwater harvesting system contributed as a strategy and pedagogical resource for the promotion of interdisciplinary acts and, consequently, the opportunity of environmental education in school. Nevertheless, interdisciplinarity is still a challenge for all the school community, although the disposition and willingness of the school management team, and some teachers, is seen and first step towards the development of projects committed to the individual’s formation in critical thinking and to the construction of meanings in the teaching and learning process. The need to conceive an education that is not stuck to the fulfillment of a syllabus or to the transmission of information is still a point of attention and a challenge to the analyzed school community. The present research will serve as a pilot plan to promote sustainable acts in the school environment, enabling a better environmental perception in the institution. The product of the research will be available as an educational guide, describing the steps of confection and implementation process of a rainwater collecting and reusing system, as well as suggestions about the construction and appliance of teaching methodologies focusing on the students’ formation in critical thinking, in terms of the responsible use of natural resources.