Home Institution
Claremont McKenna College
Publication Date
Fall 2011
Abstract
Teaching children about the importance of the protecting environment is a key step in preparing future generations to solve environmental issues. The purpose of this paper is to describe and analyze how Escola Vila in Fortaleza, Brazil integrates environmental education into its curriculum to promote positive environmental actions later in the children’s lives. Classroom observations revealed how environmental education is incorporated into the curriculum in an interdisciplinary way. Students at Escola Vila learn about the environment through creative projects, experiential learning, sustainable practices on the campus and human rights education. Interviews with alumni showed that these four ways that Escola Vila teaches environmental education have created lifelong positive feelings toward the environment as well as sustainable habits in students after they leave the school. Through its environmental education techniques, Escola Vila produces creative thinkers with a strong ecological consciousness that are prepared to find solutions for the environmental issues of their generations as well of future generations.
Disciplines
Civic and Community Engagement | Curriculum and Instruction | Education | Elementary Education and Teaching | Environmental Health and Protection | Sustainability
Recommended Citation
Heilman, Isabelle Aida, "Feeling, Experiencing, Learning: Environmental Education at Escola Vila" (2011). Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection. 1173.
https://digitalcollections.sit.edu/isp_collection/1173
Included in
Civic and Community Engagement Commons, Curriculum and Instruction Commons, Elementary Education and Teaching Commons, Environmental Health and Protection Commons, Sustainability Commons
Program Name
Brazil: Social Justice and Sustainable Development