SUSTAINABLE GARDEN IRRIGATION AUTOMATION

THINKING MEANINGFUL LEARNING

Abstract

Bearing in mind that activities and projects can contribute to the student's critical and reflective citizenship formation, the present study aimed to evaluate how interdisciplinarity between the areas of Science and Mathematics enhances the significant teaching-learning process and assists in the sustainability of water resources in a Full-Time teaching unit. To this end, qualitative research of the Case Study type was conducted, with an 8th year Elementary School class, from a Full-Time school in the municipality of Araguaína-TO, northern region of Brazil. With the help of the existing project at the “Horta Escolar” teaching unit, interdisciplinary theoretical and practical classes were planned to address the topic of sustainability and water resources economy. To evaluate meaningful learning, two questions were created, and the answers obtained were submitted to Content Analysis (BARDIN, 2011). During the execution of the project, the students noticed problems in relation to: the collection and storage of the water flow from the conditioned devices, the absence of nutrients and acidic nature of the collected solution and in the manual supervision process. In view of this, the areas supported by Science and Mathematics provided solutions for: capturing and storing water, adding nutrients and adjusting the pH in the solution so as not to harm vegetables, the automated control process and reduction in the use of drinking water . The proposed activities allowed students to associate objects of knowledge and carry out scientific communication contextualized with everyday demonstrations at Science Fairs. Even so, the execution of the project brought economic benefits to the school community with a 35% reduction in the costs of drinking water consumption. In view of the above, we understand that the direct interaction of students with the problem was a determining factor in the execution of the activity, leading to the improvement of the school garden, and also proved to be an important pedagogical tool.