A Geoeducação como estratégia de conservação do patrimônio geológico de Vila Pedra em Irituia-PA

Abstract

The greater appreciation and dissemination of biodiversity with regard to geodiversity reflects the social unawareness about values and importance of geological heritage conservation of a given region. The municipality of Irituia located in the northeast region of the state of Pará shows a unique geodiversity and is an important geological heritage of this region, with content that is not widely disseminated in the community or even among students and teachers of the local basic education. The municipality of Iritua (PA) has a place referred as Vila Pedra that is considered as a geosite consisting of several rock outcrops belonging to Guamá Sandstone lithostratigraphic unit. It is relevant for various levels of geological studies since it is regarded as the best exposure of such geological unit in the northeast of Pará. The Vila Pedra geosite has geological, geomorphological and paleontological characteristics, which give it several values, among them stand out the scientific and educational ones. The objective of this research was to promote geoconservation strategies for this geosite, through the insertion of geoeducation in the elementary education of schools in the municipal network of Irituia and to encourage the use of this space for teaching in environmental sciences, with the training of teachers and production of materials support didactics. By means of bibliographic surveys, field research and a training course were developed methodological procedures, which allowed the creation of educational materials – a geoeducation notebook and two interpretive panels for the geosite – contributing to the insertion of the geodiversity theme in elementary education, use of the geosite in non-formal education in environmental sciences, just as the dissemination, valuation and conservation of the such geosite. The survey results showed that a geological educational bias makes up a way to sensitize teachers to the understanding of the value of local geodiversity and protection of the region's geological heritage. The conservation awareness of the local geodiversity requires approaches aiming at the protection of the Vila Pedra geosite. Thus, the geodidactic products of this research contribute to the awareness, appreciation and conservation of this constituent of the geological heritage of the northeast of Pará and also to encourage its use for the tourism beside cultural potential and to assist the management and monitoring of the site