Estamos com a macaca! Educação Ambiental não formal em Zoológico

Abstract

In the formal academic and scholar fields, the Environmental Education is still very rarely worked by teachers, often because of lack of proper time oreven caused by lack of prepare of the educators to do so. So, non­formal education appears as a strong ally in the process of teaching and learning about the environment and Ambiental issues, as well as critical developing about those subjects. The Zoo isa non­formal teaching field that encourages a better relationship between man and nature. However, the zoos are still the target of hard criticism for keeping animals in captivity, due to the population belief that there is no way to keep the animals good welfare and health in those places, and that zoo­keepers are just money­seekers. The Environmental Educator has the role to show to the society the importance of keepings Zoos in preservation of the wild fauna and demystify wrong beliefs that people still have about it. Thus, this project aimed to use the zoo as a non­formal teaching environment to work on Environmental Education. The project had qualitative focus and was developed in mornings and evenings in a total of five days of work, using as subject children between the ages 9 and 12. The activity were realized in January 2020, in Summer Camp style. For the sake of getting results, tests have been applied before and after the project, with descriptive questions and used field diaries. With the obtained results, it was possible to conclude that the children developed a better understanding in the importance of the Zoo in terms of wild life conservation, noticed the essentiality of every animal in the eco­system and developed critical thinking on Environmental problems caused byman.