Environmental Education and the River of Good Water: Didactic Experience in Igatu, Chapada Diamantina-Bahia

experiência didática em Igatu, Chapada Diamantina-Bahia

Abstract

This article presents intergenerational dialogues school - garimpeiro Community, responsible for modifying the regional water pattern, to generate information on surface and underground recovery of the Paraguaçu river’s headsprings, in Chapada Diamantina. The methodology’s based on the pillars of inter/transdisciplinarity and Freire's pedagogy, observing typical artisanship that reproduce local scenarios on a small scale, the stone houses. With this tradition as starting point, a representative model of the “frinchas” garimpeiras, or anthropocentric open fractures, was built using Igatu’s “matrix rock”, in co-production and partnership with local artisans. while talking about the current waters and their patterns of the past. The result of the research generated a didactic model for the teaching - learning about aquifers, involving the school community with their ancestors, former artisanal miners of the region, combining traditional knowledges and the environment, using environmental history as a key to recover good water, meaning of the word Igatu.