A conexão universidade-escola para a promoção do ensino de ecologia e da ciência cidadã

Abstract

The banking model of education, still prevalent in Brazil, combined with the lack of meaning attributed to schooling, given its difficulty in relating content to everyday life, leads to a lack of interest among students, specifically in the natural sciences, especially ecology. Despite being a recurring theme, it is difficult to understand and associate it with reality, making it difficult to train critical citizens who are aware of the need to preserve natural resources. In the wake of the educational disinterest, there is also an impact on entry to higher education, motivated mainly by the distance from the university reality, as well as misinformation about access and permanence. So, in an effort to help mitigate these issues, this study set out to create a teaching guide, for teacher planning, to use in order to promote the teaching of ecology, associated with the practice of citizen science, through field classes in the non-formal spaces of the Goiabeiras of UFES campus and contact with the public university. The teaching guide, “Ecologia Cidadã: Guia dos Espaços Não Formais da UFES para o Ensino de Ecologia e Ciência Cidadã” (Citizen Ecology: Guide to UFES' Non-Formal Spaces for Teaching Ecology and Citizen Science), is based on the curriculum guidelines of the state of Espírito Santo, mainly addressing the planning of the field lesson, the presentation of the campus, the itinerary of the visitation areas, detailing the ecological resources available and their connection with the related content, the practice of citizen science and the suggestion of other spaces to be visited in association, in addition to having various linked materials, such as a data collection script and checklists, aimed at helping to promote the proposed practices. Using peer review, the educational resource was validated by eight biology teachers, who recognized its potential to stimulate the teaching of ecology and students' interest in UFES, attesting to it as a facilitator for teachers planning field classes, in order to help overcome bureaucratic impediments, the main reason given for the low adoption of the methodology in everyday school life