Educação ambiental a partir da compostagem escolar: resultados de um projeto de intervenção pedagógica em uma escola pública.

Abstract

This research addresses Ecological Education by use of a project of pedagogical intervention in a school. This intervention aimed to develop a process of composting of the solid residuals generated by the confection of the school lunch at a public school at Uberlândia-MG, with the active support of students of the 8th grade. The project has an interdisciplinary proposition – it contemplates the subjects of Sciences, Geography and Mathematics – and it was conducted during and after class period. Initially, a theoric evaluation about the Ecological Education was done, and, according to Dias (2004), it should stir processes of community participation that could interfere in the political process. The process of composting developed inside the scholar areas required some cautions because of the large circulation of people on these environments. Therefore, the selection of a place with little access and with conditions for the solid residuals to be decomposed was the first case study of the project. Furthermore, the most adequate type of composting unit for the food residuals of the confection of school lunch, the study of the factors that affect the composting process, like temperature, humidity, pH and microorganisms were studied and are a part of the conceptual base for this research, that strives for, in a contextualized approach, providing alternative means of learning to the student in a historical, social and cultural context. Thus, the Projeto meio ambiente: a compostagem escolar (Natural environment project: the scholar composting), performed with the students in their habitat of formal apprenticeship, matches the Ecological Education propositions developed at school and will function, possibly, as an important guide to the implementation of other projects in this area. In order to achieve this, an electronic book (e-book) modeled as a booklet was produced to be used by the students, teachers and the community.