Geoeducation based on the geoheritage of the Caminho dos Caniôns do Sul Geopark – Southern Brazil

Abstract

<p>The abiotic elements of the natural environment constitute the geoheritage through geosites, identified from the exceptional values ​​of geodiversity. Among these values, which range from its scientific to cultural potential, the educational one stands out. In this sense, the number of works in which geoheritage is used to teach geoscientific content is increasing. Such initiatives can be based on educational projects in the school space or in non-formal teaching spaces, including protected areas and geoparks. The Caminhos dos Cânions do Sul Geopark (CCSG), located in southern Brazil, presents unique natural aspects with a vast geodiversity and biodiversity, where canyons, waterfalls and paleoburrows stand out – abiotic elements in the landscape with high geoeducational potential. In Brazil, the school curriculum was restructured in 2018 into a National Common Curricular Base (NCCB), which regulates the essential contents worked in Brazilian schools. This work aims to identify skills and contents present in the NCCB that allow working geoscientific concepts based on the precepts of geodiversity, from geosites present in the CCSG. For this, we carried out an analysis of the curriculum to identify the contents to be addressed from the CCSG geoheritage, considering the geosites with educational value. The results indicate that there is no clear approach to geodiversity and its conceptual developments, such as geoheritage. However, the landforms and geomorphological compartments are contents that permeate all the final years of elementary school, such as the sixth year through the concept of landscape, in the seventh with the physical-natural aspects and in the eighth and ninth years with occupations and relationships. humans on the environment. One of the skills identified in the NCCB (EF06GE01) is to compare changes in landscapes in places of living and the uses of these places at different times. From the Fortaleza Canyon, it is possible to discuss the concept of landscape from the wide field of vision that encompasses from the plateau, escarpments, to the colluvial-alluvial plain, different vegetation covers and forms of land use, allowing the concept to be constructed from of experience in the field. It is also possible to address contents present in the skill (EF06GE04), which proposes to recognize the main components of the morphology of basins and hydrographic networks and their location in the modeled terrestrial surface. From the Itaimbezinho Canyon geosite, the typical geomorphological characteristics of the hydrographic basins are identified, such as the slopes, the drainage network, waterfalls and the intense erosive dynamics in this type of modeling, also highlighting the abundance of channels and available water resources. Therefore, the geoeducational approach is quite relevant, especially in the elementary school curriculum, seeking to value geoheritage, the importance of geodiversity as well as its educational value.</p>