Abstract

NATALE, Evangelina; ASTUDILLO, Carola  and  OGGERO, Antonia Josefina. Monitoring of environmental education program in urban nature reserve "Bosque Autóctono El Espinal". Rev. Actual. Investig. Educ [online]. 2017, vol.17, n.3, pp.271-299. ISSN 1409-4703.  http://dx.doi.org/10.15517/aie.v17i3.29202.

The Urban Natural Reserve “Bosque Autóctono El Espinal” has undertaken the design and implementation of an Environmental Education Program destined to the educational community aiming for the resignification of the Urban Natural Reserves as complementary areas for learning (“open-air classrooms”). The program is based on the elaboration of activities that help to understand the local natural settings and their main environmental problems in a significant, active and committed manner. All these activities were differentiated according to the potential audience by setting different levels for contents, thinking processes, language and technical vocabulary. To monitor the experience, teachers, students and interpreters were subjected to interviews, and information from field work was registered. All these instruments were implemented before, during and after the visits; 141 cases were analyzed. In general, both the informative materials and the collections and samples were not only easy to comprehend but also attractive for the visitors, and the implemented modality particularly favored interaction, dialog and the spontaneous expression among visitors. The activities provided a good opportunity for the discussion of real problems. Moreover, the post-visit productions allowed us to recognize new learnings in the students, who were able to acknowledge distinctive characters of native biodiversity and the important role of the protected areas. We can assure that these areas complement school learning with life experiences, giving new signification to the official curricula for the local and current environmental problems. The results obtained gave rise to recommendations for the methodological adjustment of new experiences.

Keywords : protected area; no formal education; open-air classrooms; evaluation.

        · abstract in Spanish     · text in English     · English ( pdf )