"Mickey Mouse", "Tom & Jerry" e "Masha e o Urso" COMO FERRAMENTAS DE APOIO À EDUCAÇÃO AMBIENTAL NO ENSINO FUNDAMENTAL

Abstract

The impacts of anthropogenic activities on the environment have been increasingly notorious, eventually affecting the biotic and abiotic factors that guide the ecosystem balance. As a result, different didactic-pedagogical resources and activities have been proposed within the scope of environmental education (EE) in schools. However, approaches aimed at the early years of schooling are scarce in the literature. Thus, the general objective of the present study was to evaluate the feasibility of using cartoons (AD) to support the activities of AE that can be performed in elementary school (PE). To do this, we initially analyzed 196 episodes of the series “The Tom and Jerry Show”, “Mickey Mouse's House” and “Masha and the Bear” (totaling 55h16min of analysis), defined by being widely known and watched in different countries, besides having no explicit environmental intention. After that, we identified 41 episodes, which had the potential to be explored in EE activities from their plots and scenes. Such episodes presented interesting contexts for working with themes related to ecology, zoology, environmental impacts, conservation of natural resources, as well as biodiversity. In assessing the pedagogical value of these drawings, students from the 1st year of elementary school who participated in an AE activity in which the AD were used, demonstrated gain in knowledge about different general environmental issues, as well as about the Cerrado biome, after being evaluated before and after the activity. Therefore, our study confirms the hypothesis that AD (although they do not have an explicit environmental intention) can be used as didactic-pedagogical support within the scope of AE activities aimed at children, bringing children's daily lives closer to environmental issues.