The Environmental Education Programme (EA) at REGUA began in 2004 with frequent visits to schools located in the area local to the Reserve along the Guapiaçu River. One of the first topics presented to children and young people was related to predatory hunting and its harm to the biodiversity of their local environment.
The Environmental Education Programme is divided into four parts, namely:
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It is important to point out that regardless of the Environmental Education programme presented, the local community included and invited to be present as an audience for all REGUA's actions. The strengthening of dialogue with communities occurs through the Environmental Education actions, which include the construction of strategies for the active participation of residents in all our activities. Through dialogue with the community, collective actions can be taken to help solve the region's environmental problems.
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(...) Contact with nature improves all the most important milestones of a healthy childhood – immunity, memory, sleep, learning capacity, sociability, physical capacity – and has contributed significantly to the overall well-being of children and young people. Evidence shows that the benefits are mutual: just as children and adolescents need nature, nature needs children and young people.
(Children and Nature Program and Brazilian Society of Pediatrics, 2019)
ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION
Since its creation one of REGUA's main objectives has been to develop an environmental awareness programme that involves all communities located in the Guapiaçu River catchment area. The aim is to awaken the desire for conservation of the remnants of the Atlantic Forest in the region, by promoting knowledge and recognition of its invaluable biological value and its environmental services.
SCHOOL VISITS
Schools visiting REGUA are offered an interpretive trail that functions as a living classroom. The route starts at the nursery and then enters a forest area restored in 2007. Here, many topics can be explored including, the water cycle, importance of bioindicators, biodiversity, quality soils and many related topics.
This will increase awareness in the students of more responsible actions towards society and the environment through our activities and interpretation on the trails which show the benefits of the integration of people and nature.
Throughout the course, students are involved in activities and workshops that sharpen the senses and provide integration between mind, body and nature. Thus, sequential learning is the main methodology used for the ecological trails adjacent to REGUA headquarters, which promote direct contact with nature, through activities that delight those involved.
REGUA students and staff at an environmental education event "500 seedlings, with education everything changes" - © REGUA
For Joseph Cornell (2005), sequential learning occurs from four stages: awakening enthusiasm, concentrating attention, directing experiences and sharing inspiration.
In this context, there is an immersion with nature that enables the individual to connect and interact with everything that nature can share for a better quality of life.
Students from Ernestina school at the event "500 seedlings, with education everything changes" - © REGUA
Participants are able to learn while having fun in nature. Promoting a rapprochement between theory and practice, favoring mental and physical health, raising awareness of environmental problems, in which it provides more interest in the consequences of human actions provoking and its possible solutions based on changes in attitudes and behaviors.
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To schedule your school visit, contact:
Email: educacao@regua.org.br
WhatsApp: +55 21 96916-0078
Representative image about sequential learning - © REGUA
YOUNG RANGERS
The Young Ranger Programme aims to raise awareness of a more responsible attitude towards society and the environment. REGUA promotes the value and need for cooperation in the face of the environmental situation. In addition to encouraging students' curiosity about local biodiversity, it enables awareness of respecting and collaborating with the reintroduction of fauna and flora. Promoting the importance of forest restoration to preserve local biodiversity and quality of life and water supplies. In this way, the local community is becoming more aware of the importance of conservation of the Guapiaçu river catchment area.
Jovem Guarda students receiving the green bulletin - © REGUA
The programme takes place three times a week, for a total of 9 hours a week with 12 students per class. All classes are based on the same structure as the Scouting organisations, which is non-formal education, thus, (GOHN, 2014, p. 40):
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(...) Non-formal education is that which is learned 'in the world of life', via the processes of sharing experiences, mainly in everyday collective spaces and actions. Our conception of non-formal education is linked to the field of citizen education. – which in the school context presupposes the democratization of management and access to the school, as well as the democratization of knowledge. In non-formal education, this education focuses on the formation of free, emancipated citizens, holders of a diversified range of rights, as well as duties towards the other(s).
In this way, all learning is assumed to be meaningful and contribute to strengthening citizenship. However, the following values are followed, also present in the Union of Scouts of Brazil, such as:
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(...) Diversity – Respect for differences, in their various dimensions, and permanent defense of human rights. Honesty – Respect for legal, moral, fair and ethical precepts in all actions and relationships. Democracy – Promotion of everyone's engagement and sharing of opinions, in the search for positions and decisions resulting from collective reflection. Inclusion – Adequacy to accommodate the different characteristics and needs of the people who make up society. Innovation – Ability to implement new ideas and seek creative solutions for success and permanent updating of the organization. Commitment – Commitment to social transformation, with children and youth education and the impact generated in communities. Sustainability – Responsibility with the environment, resources and society, and adoption of sustainable practices. Cooperation – Willingness to share experiences, value collective work and maintain relationships with other institutions. Transparency – Visible and clear actions in the management of the organization and resources at all levels.
(“União dos Escoteiros do Brasil - Atados | Volunteer Platform”, 2022)
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36 students aged between 7 and 15 years who live in the communities surrounding REGUA will be attending at any one time.
Workshop on making masks of the Atlantic Forest fauna with educators Josiane Silva, Yasmim Xavier and Jovem Guarda students - © REGUA
Students from the Jovem Guarda program - © REGUA
BABY IN NATURE
The Baby in Nature programme started in August 2022 and aims to strengthen the child's bond with nature from an early age. The Legal Framework of Early Childhood, LAW No. 13,257, OF MARCH 8, 2016. is the premise of the programme whose target audience is children from 0 to 6 years old, with “attention to the specificity and relevance of the first years of life in child development and human development”.
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Baby in Nature invites you to experience nature through the relationship between family, environment, health, education and promotion, providing opportunities for each participant to recognise themselves as part of a continuous cycle for a better quality of life.
Collection - © REGUA
The programme's actions are inspired by the Sharing Nature and Reggio Emília methodologies, where the child brings within himself his multiple potentialities by developing in playing in and with nature, stimulating the senses, favouring social bonds and strengthening “Vitamin N”, Nature.
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Collection - © REGUA
Sou(L)
In Portuguese Sou comes from the verb SER which translates in English as "to be". The same as: I exist, I happen, I live, I do, I relate, I mean, I represent, I am.” Soul, means the spiritual part of a person in English. Integrating the being, the soul and nature are part of human existence, everyone is connected.
The programme aims to promote the well-being of participants through practices, dynamics, music and art that favour integration with nature, and consequently, strengthen the physical and mental health of those contemplated. All actions will be carried out in the morning at the REGUA, so the participants will participate in ecological trails, visual art workshops, music therapy, stretching, mindfulness practices and handicrafts.