CLC-Conference-Proceeding-2018

the need to care for the environment and its
problems. In addition, it allows participants to
express knowledge, attitudes, motivations and
desires to work individually and collectively in
the search for solutions to current problems in
their community and in the prevention of others
that may arise.
Once the presentation of the team, the
origin, the motive of the activity and the
objectives, began to explore and deepen the
knowledge of the children on the concept of the
environment, which made them very
participative. Then, some environmental
problems, especially those in Cuba, were
released and asked to identify problems in their
environment (neighborhood, school and houses).
Another of the moments of the activity
was the use of participatory cartography to
identify environmental problems in the vicinity
of the school, an area that for many of the
participating children coincided with their place
of residence. To do this, each child was given a
printed image of Google Earth with the location
of the school and the names of the surrounding
streets, and was asked to locate in the same the
environmental problems that they considered,
based on their experiences. In the bottom right of
the sheet a blank sector was enabled so that, after
explanation, the children made their own legend.
The exercise allowed to know and locate
the environmental problems that the children
perceived in the surroundings of their school,
that is where practically passes the greater part of
their time. By taking into account their criteria
and making them participate in matters that may
affect positively or negatively in their daily
spaces, they feel they are active subjects of the
community, they increase their social
responsibility in function of the care and
protection of the environment and even can
venture to take concrete actions for the good of
the community.
On the other hand, the exercise helped
children to become more familiar with maps and
new technologies, begin to develop spatial
thinking from an early age and learn more about
their territories from a perspective different from
that used in the Traditional education. In the case
of teachers, the experience was also of great
interest, since the tools used are didactic, novel
and effective ways that could be introduced in
the teachinglearning process.
Subsequently, with the use of GIS, the
information collected from the individual maps
of the students was made up, and a synthesis
map of the environmental problems identified by
the children in both schools was elaborated
(Figures 1a and b). The problem most frequently
identified by children in both schools was the
presence of garbage dumps in the community,
indicated by almost all participants, followed by
the existence of sewage in one neighborhood and
broken streets in the other. Other problems
identified were salideros, loud music, noise,
pollution, landslides, felling and burning trees,
bad smell, among others.