REMOTE TECHNICAL VISITS: A POSSIBLE APPROACH TO THE ENVIRONMENTAL TOPIC IN TEACHING UNITS

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic and the distancing measures required adaptations in the entire teaching structure. In this context, the objective of this article is to report remote visits carried out for students attending High School courses integrated to the Technical and Higher Education levels about environmental topics. The visits to five companies/organizations took place by means of a project prepared by undergraduate students attending the FMU Environmental and Sanitary Engineering course, aiming to provide them with a virtual presentation of their processes in the environmental area. The participants in the visits were 231 students from High School courses integrated to the Technical level from two public schools and 152 attending courses integrated to Higher Education at a private institution. Thus, in a dynamic way, it was possible to show socio environmental activities developed by the companies/organizations, regarding different theoretical-practical aspects inherent to sustainability, such as waste management, ecological sanitation, vegetable gardens in small spaces, aquaponics systems and the importance of stingless bees, among others. It is considered that the Remote Visits Project is within a scenario marked by the expansion of educational procedures, enriching both the academic experiences of the students directly involved in the Project and those of the other students participating in the visits, due to the reflections and learning processes provided by the immersion in applied sustainability models, thus promoting interdisciplinary knowledge, sensitization and diverse information pertinent to the environmental issues addressed in the visits.