In September, over 250 high and elementary school students from state schools Arthur Ribeiro, Salvador Moreno Munhoz and João da Cruz Melão, on the municipality of Teodoro Sampaio, far west of São Paulo, had the opportunity to learn about the Mico Conservation Program -black lion with a visit from Vinícius Alves, the Program’s environmental educator. The Black Lion Tamarin Conservation Program (Programa de Conservação do Mico-leão-preto) has been performed for 39 years in the region.
Vinícius promoted a series of lectures that began with the history of the Black Lion Tamarin Conservation Program, which originated IPÊ – Ecological Research Institute (Instituto de Pesquisas Ecológicas), included ongoing research in the Program, conservation actions currently applied and also the behind the scenes and challenges encountered by the field team. The students also took a closer look at some of the equipment used in procedures for capturing, marking (identification chip) and monitoring groups of black lion tamarins (Leontopithecus chrysopygus).
The series of lectures was also attended by 12 teachers from state schools. Daniel Lourenço Emmerich, teacher at Arthur Ribeiro school, explains how initiatives like this contribute to arguments in the classroom. “Vinícius’s lecture on the importance of the black lion tamarin for biodiversity conservation addressed the role of the researcher, included the rediscovery of a species that was considered extinct and clarified a series of students’ doubts. Bringing the issue of environmental conservation to students in practice helps us teachers a lot in subjects such as science, chemistry, biology, history, geography; which are after all part of this daily environmental conservation. The lecture given by Vinícius guided our students in such a positive way that they are already asking when the researcher will be back at our school”. More Teodoro Sampaio schools have already expressed interest in welcoming the biologist to present on the same topic.
At the end of each lecture, the educator gave the school teacher involved in the action a test version of a “black lion tamarin card game”. The game aims to promote knowledge of local fauna through playful activities.
