Loud Scream to Help Nature

Funded by Making a Difference Awards

Title: Loud Scream to Help Nature: A Project in Northeast Brazil

Recipient: Milca de Paula, Federal Rural University of Pernambuco (UFRPE), Northeast Education Network Programme (RENOEN). 

Date: December, 2024

This project combined environmental and musical education with the intention that students could put their learning into practice in their daily lives and transform their local area. The Jardim Brasil lagoon is an area of environmental interest that has suffered degradation due to human actions, including contamination with waste, which leads to flooding in the local area, with implications for people’s homes and schools. The project addressed local awareness of the causes and solutions to this problem through music. The project involved a collaboration between the APROVE music project and the Renato Fonseca State School to form a large choir, which rehearsed and performed musical repertoire that promoted environmental awareness and carried out a series of activities (e.g. making instruments from recycled materials) involving music and environmental awareness. Through this work, we involved the local community in musical educational activities and in the fight for the improvement, cleaning and conservation of the Jardim Brasil lagoon. The project was also part of the Extension project of the Doctorate in Education course, carried out at the Federal Rural University of Pernambuco (UFRPE), by the Northeast Education Network Program (RENOEN). The project was supervised by professor Gilvaneide Ferreira de Oliveira. Its objective was to raise awareness among students about environmental issues and promote reflections on sustainability with the help of music. The research activity used mixed methods, such as: Action research, (auto)biographical narrative with a phenomenological perspective. The data were collected in a focus group, formed by 2nd grade students from the Renato Fonseca State Reference School, located in the city of Olinda, State of Pernambuco (Northeast Brazil). A choir was formed with the students from this class to perform a Sound Cry in favour of nature. Analysis of the students’ statements indicated an increase in awareness regarding the environmental problems of the place, such as the serious situation of the lake and its surroundings. We believe that the use of songs with ecological lyrics in the school and in the classroom awakened the students’ sensitivity to have a critical look at their practices of respect for the place where they live, to look with more sympathy at the conservation and preservation of the environment and consequently of the life of the lake. Through the actions experienced, it is believed that there is a change in attitude on the part of those involved.

3. estudantes cantado com a cantora cristina amaral
Students singing along with Cristina Amaral, a representative of cultural music from Pernambuco, Brazil. © Milca de Paula
5. milca de paula falando da pesquisa
Milca de Paula talks about the research and the importance of music in raising awareness of environmental issues. © Milca de Paula

A short documentary film will illustrate the situation of Lagoa Sementeira, located in the Jardim Brasil 1 neighborhood of Olinda, Pernambuco (Brazil), which is the result of the project. As a researcher and musician, I aim to contribute to resolving the situation, or at least minimizing it. I composed a song that became the soundtrack for the documentary, recorded by singer Cristina Amaral, and was shared and rehearsed with the students at the school during the project.

This project was supported by SEMPRE (Society for Education Music and Psychology Research). To whom I express my gratitude. 

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