Sustentabilidade e sociedade sustentável: como estudantes universitários concebem a apresentação dessas idéias em Museus de Ciência

Abstract

The concept of sustainability has been increasingly present in debates about how to improve the quality of human life. However, sustainability has been described in several ways as environmental, social, cultural, economical sustainability. Such ways of understanding the term might result in different understandings. This paper discusses the conceptions that undergraduate students, undertaking teacher education courses, present about sustainability and of which would be the characteristics of a maintainable society. With this objective, an open ended questionnaire was answered by 220 students, of twelve different courses. In this research instrument, they suggest how to present the idea of sustainability at Science Museums, so that visitors can better understand the term. The results show that these students give different meanings to the term sustainability, describing several characteristics for a society to be maintainable. They suggest exhibitions, guided activities and that the museum building should be itself sustainable, as well as its maintenance.