environmental education, the environment and impact assessment in the view of college students in florianópolis/sc.

Environmental concerns increased in Brazil in the 20th century with the perception of the impacts that human activities have on biodiversity. Society needs to understand such environmental concerns in order to develop actions that prevent these impacts. Projects on environmental education can help in this understanding. When these projects are implemented in college they show a high potential since students can multiply their environmental knowledge in their places of work. Thus, this research was focused on (a) registering the environmental practices offered to students during their time in college and (b) investigating the students’ perspectives about the environment and environmental impact. Semi-structured interviews were used with 102 students at two universities in the greater Florianópolis region. The data analysis considered answer frequency. The results indicated the existence of many kinds of environmental activities in these universities, but these activities are not organized in structured programs. The answers pointed to the predominance of an anthropocentric perspective, where nature is seen as material provider. The research concluded that environmental programs offered to college students need theoretical reflections to distinguish with clarity the different perspectives over which concepts related to the environmental concerns are built.