Definition of Environmental Education

Issues related to environment affect the whole planet, such as the contamination atmospheric, the climate change or the shortage of natural resources. In order for these issues to be resolved, there needs to be a education environmental, that is, didactic programs and approaches in which the citizenship (especially school-age children) about environmental problems.

The double dimension of environmental education

An environmental education program is implicit in two aspects. On the one hand, a series of scientific knowledge related to ecology, the weather, food chains and other aspects of a scientific nature and, in parallel, a dimension transformative, since objective knowledge about the environment should be an instrument for raise awareness population on the challenges that humanity must face for the sustainability of the planet.

General aspects in environmental education programs

It is important that the contents taught are accompanied by illustrative examples related to daily life and the immediate environment (for For example, how to recycle garbage, how a person can take care of their environment or indicate what are the practices contrary to an environment healthy ).

Children have to be the main protagonists of environmental education programs. It must be borne in mind that children are the adults of tomorrow and, on the other hand, can actively help in the environmental education of their parents.

Environmental education should be based on concrete examples rather than theory

For this, it is convenient for schoolchildren to participate in specific projects in educational centers (collecting batteries, recycling campaigns or carrying out tasks in small urban gardens).

Environmental educators can carry out their educational activity in very diverse contexts (in a neighborhood, in extracurricular workshops, in camps or through social networks).

Environmental education should be approached not as a specific subject or subject but as a cross-cutting theme. It must be taken into account that the contents of environmental education are related to very different aspects (urbanism, ethics, health, nature or the economy).

Finally, environmental education inherently carries an individual and a collective message. In other words, it reminds us that each person can do something for the environment and, at the same time, indicates that we live in society and our collective behavior will have repercussions on the environment environment.

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