Museum-school interactions: the importance of continuing education programs for teachers in municipalities away from urban centres
Abstract: Due to a series of misconceptions about science, science centers and science museums have proposed projects to break the paradigm of science education focused on a small portion of the population. These centers and museums have developed strategies aimed at social inclusion in terms of their educational character, thereby investing in strategies to upgrade vocational education, among other actions.
Keywords: education, Training of teachers, social inclusion, science museums
Thematic: Cities and Urban Services
Developing Environmental and Scientific Education in School
Abstract: Initiatives involving notions of environmental education and scientific education were stimulated in a state secondary school (Niterói, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), using practical and dynamic activities undertaken with pupils aged from 15 to 17 years old during an entire academic year. Each activity had a specific organization, with its own goals, targets, and a schedule for completing tasks, as well as staggered participation by the pupils involved.
Keywords: environmental education, scientific education, formal education,vegetable garden, composting
Thematic: Societal issues and Governance
SEQUOIA Institute: A multidisciplinary private service for the care of senior citizens
Abstract: Population aging is a reality all over the world, requiring a change in the way care is perceived and resources are divided for different age groups. In Brazil, current indicators and projections place the country among those with the highest number of elderly people. By contrast, there is a shortage of action plans and inter- and multi-disciplinary teams, as well as public policies and professionals, focusing on the elderly, in part as a consequence of an accelerated aging process in developing countries.
Keywords: education, health care, developing countries, aging, psychology,geriatrics
Thematic: Societal issues and Governance
Planetary citizenship and curriculum: Schools from three continents learn through diversity
Abstract: This paper presents a project developed by NGOs and schools from five different countries – Brazil being one of them – aimed at contributing towards raising global/planetary awareness in children and youngsters. The authors show how it was designed and is being implemented collaboratively, governed by the principle of diversity, with dialogue and cooperation among the participants. They also point out the main challenges it must face until its conclusion in 2012.
Keywords: cooperation, curriculum, global/planetary dimension, diversity, schools
Thematic: Societal issues and Governance
Science Museums and the Popularization of Science in Brazil
Abstract: We analyzed the role and importance of the popularization of science in science museums, and its perspectives in Brazil, from the experience we have developed over the years in the Espaço Ciência Viva ; and our participation, observations and studies related to the popularization of science in other science museums and science centers in Brazil and abroad.
Keywords: education, policy, museums, science, Brazil, economic development,cultural history
Thematic: Societal issues and Governance
Congenital Toxoplasmosis: A Neglected Disease? – Current Brazilian public health policy
Abstract: Toxoplasmosis is a cosmopolite disease caused by the protozoan parasite, Toxoplasma gondii. The infection may be contracted through the ingestion of raw or undercooked meat or unpasteurised milk, organ transplants, blood transfusion, through the placenta in vertical transmission or by direct contact with the faeces of infected felids or even through the ingestion of sporulated oocysts in water or food.
Keywords: toxoplasmosis, toxoplasma gondii, epidemiology, public health policies
Thematic: Societal issues and Governance
From Myth to Reality: The Experience of Sustainable Tourism in The Vale Encantado Community in Tijuca Forest, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Abstract: Considered one of the largest urban forests in the world and the third largest in Brazil, the Tijuca Forest, in the city of Rio de Janeiro, faces the great challenge of living harmoniously and sustainably with the 46 slums located around it. One of these communities, Vale Encantado, whose occupation dates from the mid-eighteenth century, experienced the various production cycles that developed in the area, through logging, farming, livestock production, ornamental plants and black granite mining.
Keywords: Sustainable tourism, Social Cuisine, Community Development,Conservation Units, Tijuca Forest
Thematic: Cities and Urban Services
Bolsa Família (Family Grant) Programme: an analysis of Brazilian income transfer programme
Abstract: Income transfer programmes are common in various countries and play an important role in combating poverty. This article presents a review of the results of the Bolsa Família (Family Grant) Programme, implemented in Brazil by the government of Lula da Silva in 2004. Over the last seven years many evaluations of the programme have been conducted, allowing an overview of its results and its strong and weak points to be mapped.
Keywords: Bolsa Família (Family Grant) Programme, Income Transfer, Evaluation of Results
Thematic: Societal issues and Governance
Olodum da Bahia, a History of Cultural Inclusion
Abstract: This article focuses on the treatment of the Grupo Cultural Olodum with young adolescents Maciel Pelourinho, Salvador - Bahia - Brazil, in the 70 and 80 living in situations of profound social vulnerability and the opportunities were few. The Pelourinho, Salvador Historical Center, this time was inhabited by people who were unable to decent housing, since the site had no basic infrastructure, dominated the robberies, crime, prostitution and drug trafficking.
Keywords: education, culture, Olodum
Thematic: Societal issues and Governance
Landscape and Environmental Education in Brazil
Abstract: This work is the result of the "Landscape Observation" Environmental Education project carried out with students from Brazilian Basic Education. Part of this project was an urban study aimed at analyzing landscape alterations through visits to two strategic points in the city of Itabira: the "Pico do Amor" and the "Morro da Pousada".
Keywords: environmental education, alteration, landscape, observation, exploration
Thematic: Societal issues and Governance
How a Brazilian Firm is Sustainably Solving the Problems of Urban Slums, One Community at a Time
Abstract: Terra Nova, a for-profit social enterprise, helps urban slum dwellers obtain legal title to the land they occupy irregularly. By managing all aspects of the land regularization process, Terra Nova helps community residents purchase the land they live on, formalizing an important asset and catalyzing economic growth.
Keywords: urban, Brazil, affordable housing, slums, land regularization, favelas,social entrepreneurship, social transformation, Terra Nova
Thematic: Cities and Urban Services
Abrolhos: challenges for the conservation and sustainable development of the area that encompasses the largest marine biodiversity in the southern Atlantic
Abstract: he Abrolhos Region, located between the south of Bahia state and the north of Espírito Santo state, harbours the largest known marine biodiversity in the entire South Atlantic. The two main economic activities in the region are fishing and tourism, both clearly dependent on the environment.
Keywords: Abrolhos, Canavieiras, Corumbau, Biodiversity Conservation, Marine Protected Areas, Overfishing, Management of Fishing.
Thematic: Societal issues and Governance
Social inclusion through access to heritage culture and education in an informal environment
Abstract: This article describes the planning, performance and assessment of guided visits at the National Museum for pupils in state schools in Rio de Janeiro. The theoretical basis was the personal, physical and socio-cultural approaches for facilitating learning in museums contained in the John Falk model.
Keywords: social inclusion, education in museums, informal education, science teaching
Thematic: Societal issues and Governance
Polyculture in the semi-arid regions of Brazil
Abstract: The previsions say that the semiarid regions in the world are between the most impacted by the global climate change. In Brazil, among the environmental (lost of biodiversity, extreme droughts), social (migrations, diseases exposition) and economics (reduction on income generation, in employment rates, and in the Gross Domestic Product) of global warming.
Keywords: multiple cultivations, climate changes, semi-arid regions, human development, Bahia-Brazil
Thematic: Societal issues and Governance