ENVIRONMENTAL PERCEPTION AND AWARENESS OF STUDENTS OF BASIC EDUCATION FOR FOREST CONSERVATION CILIARY

The objective of this work was to verify how the sixth-grade pupils of the Basic Education of a State School (Caarapo, MS) comprehend the stream and the environmental problems. Like this, an individual questionnaire was applied, before and after an activity of Environmental Education. In the identification of the previous knowledge we verified that the perception of the pupils on the stream was restricted to the lack of ecological information that they demonstrate the important function of the aquatic ecosystem to maintain the environmental integrity. Besides, the representations of the stream were diverged in anthropocentric and ecological ideas, with tendencies for ecological answers when these were more explicit in the question. In the visit to the stream and in the activity in classroom was possible to establish with the pupils a relationship among the knowledge presented previously by them and the new presented information. After these activities, it was possible to observe that the pupils were capable to assimilate new knowledge on the operation of the stream as a fundamental element for the maintenance of the life.