University outreach during the pandemic: digital technologies to teach energy efficiency and climate protection¹

Abstract

This research aimed to evaluate the implementation of a university outreach initiative involving digital technologies toward elementary and middle-school students’ awareness of the rational use of energy and climate protection conducted during the Covid-19 pandemic. Therefore, we developed a short course, taught remotely, with twenty students from ten to thirteen years old enrolled in schools from the state system of Santa Catarina in the city of Araranguá. For this course, we developed didactic materials about the following themes: a) energy sources and emissions, b) transport energy and emissions, and c) energy efficiency and climate protection. From the data collected, we could see that the approach to energy efficiency and climate protection themes can contribute to developing perceptions about reducing environmental impacts. We have also identified the importance of contextually approaching these themes, as proposed by the course, to facilitate students’ learning and their transmission of necessary knowledge to their families regarding each person’s role in environmental protection. Hence, we can conclude that university outreach is an opportunity to approximate schools from the academy in building methodologies that lead to the teaching and learning of different topics and, perhaps, the adoption of new habits, mainly in the case of environmental education. Furthermore, we concluded that digital technologies are powerful tools for implementing outreach initiatives in pandemic contexts.

Keywords
Remote education; Pandemic; Covid-19; University outreach; Energy efficiency; Climate protection