13 de julho de 2021

Guano Speleo Groups performs action in the International Year of Caves with students of the Guimarães Rosa Popular Course, from Medicine School of Minas Gerais Federal University.

Figure 1: Folder released, calling attention to the International Year of Caves and Karst.


Print: Class screen Geography- Biomes – Speleology on 06/22/2021

With a call to “Explore, Understand and Protect”, the International Union of Speleology (IUS), composed by 56 member countries, celebrates 2021 as the International Year of Caves and Karst (IYCK) (Figure 1). The IUS called the entire speleological community to integrate actions aimed at disseminating speleological knowledge.

In 2021, as it was in 2020, the caving groups were able to carry out little or no activity in person, since one of the main ways to prevent the spread of COVID-19 is to take sanitary measures and avoid social contact. This pandemic context of Covid-19 impacts the entire world community, and as we write this report, it has reached the mark of 179,686,071 confirmed cases of COVID-19, including 3,899,172 deaths (World Health Organization-WHO, https://covid19.who.int/) and in Brazil alone, almost 512 thousand deads (National Council of Health Secretaries CONASS https://olhardigital.com.br/2021/06/25/coronavirus/covid-19-brasil-tem-2-mil-mortes-nas-ultimas-24-horas-total-ultrapassa-511-mil/).

However, in response to the calling of IUS for the International Year of Caves and Karst, the Guano Speleo group, which is headquartered in the city of Belo Horizonte/MG, Brazil, despite the critical sanitary scenario, and observing all the standards of  health authorities, identified an opportunity to spread knowledge about speleology to the practically unacquainted community on the subject.

The action took place through a partnership with Guimarães Rosa Popular Course, from the Medicine School of UFMG. This course works with the contribution of a team of volunteers, from organizational part to the teachers. The institution serves forty students, aged from seventeen, from the outskirts of Belo Horizonte and neighboring municipalities, such as Santa Luzia and Ribeirão das Neves.

They share the desire to enter a Public University, through the National Secondary Education Examination - ENEM, but they are hampered by the set of social determinants typical of territories with medium and high social vulnerabilities, such as the lack or difficulty of access to public health, education, basic sanitation and low-income policies. Due to such determinants, many students, when they finish high school, find it difficult to prepare to enter higher education, especially the public.

And it was in this context of the Covid-19 pandemic, but also of hopes for a better future in preparation for ENEM, that a team from Guano Speleo entered, on June 22, 2021, the Geography class at Guimarães Rosa Course. The class was held in a virtual setting, which could refer to the darkness of a cave. Team members showed up wearing clothes and equipment used in the speleological exploration. The class aimed to insert, within the theme “Brazilian Biomes”, introductory information about caves, in order to awaken in students a view with a conservationist bias, on the relationship and existence of caves in global ecosystems. As a complementary research to the class, and with the necessary authorizations from the producers, two videos produced by the Biotrópicos team were reproduced, which address the environmental impacts that the Cerrado and Atlantic Forest biomes have been suffering.

Addressing the theme of speleology in geography classes was already a proposal by the member of Guano and also volunteer professor of this discipline at Guimarães Course, Eleciania Tavares. However, the idea actually materialized when, in one of the previous classes, the students had many negative doubts and common sense about bats. Thus, the demand was presented by the teacher to the pedagogical coordination of the course and to the entire team of speleologists at Guano Speleo, who immediately embraced the proposed action with the students. This proposal would also integrate the IUS’s calling for the International Year of Caves and the Karst.

The members of Guano Speleo, Narjara Pimentel (biologist) and geographers Valdair Vieira, Erick Carvalho and Eleciania Tavares, provided students with introductory knowledge about speleology, care and equipment needed to explore a cave. However, the emphasis was on the part of biospeleology, with scientific information passed on in a very didactic way with dialogued exposition, by Narjara Pimentel.

With the format of dialogued exhibition conducted by Narjara Pimental, for approximately one hour, students were able to present questions and considerations through direct speeches or manifestations in the message box of the Google Meet platform, where classes are normally taught. Information on the diversity of cave fauna was presented, and supported by academic and scientific studies, the theme about bats was the main focus. The biologist explained about the natural history of the group in question (Figure 2) and the importance of these animals for the balance and maintenance of Brazilian and world ecosystems (Figure 3). She also spoke about myths and truths (Figure 3), trying to demystify the negative image that these animals in society, even more in times of coronavirus, when various untrue information about bats circulated putting these animals at greater risk of suffering extermination.

 Figure 2: Biology and natural history of the bat group. Images provided by the speaker (Narjara Pimentel)


Print: Screen class Geography- Biomes – Speleology on 06/22/2021

Figure 3: Myths and legends about bats and the importance of conserving these animals. Images provided by the speaker (Narjara Pimentel).


Print: Screen class Geography- Biomes – Speleology on 06/22/2021

Both the present students and the pedagogical coordination of the Guimarães Rosa Popular Course, represented by Átila Paraguassu, who is also an academic from the university's Medicine course, recognized the importance of addressing the theme of speleology in the popular course in order to propose complementary knowledge for the preparation of students for the ENEM test. Student Dalleska Juliana Moreira Oliveira reports that “the class was very interesting! I think that understanding how caves work and their entire system contributes a lot to knowledge. It's a subject that we only hear about, and bringing these curiosities shows the importance they have in all of our lives”.

Figure 4: Speech moment of the pedagogical coordination, represented by Átila Paraguassu


Print: Class screen Geography- Biomes – Speleology on 06/22/2021

The proposal is that during 2021, other interdisciplinary classes may take place with approaches involving speleology, as this science can be explored from the perspective of other existing disciplines in the prep course. Students, teacher and pedagogical coordination recognize that these themes and approaches can serve as complementary knowledge for students in their preparation process for ENEM. The pedagogical coordination also expressed interest in carrying out, at the right time and after the pandemic, a field activity in the city of Cordisburgo/MG. This is the birthplace of the author from Minas Gerais, which gives its name to the popular course, and which has cultural and speleological relevance for the national and world scene, as it is where the Maquiné’s cave is located, where the naturalist Petter Lund (known as the Father of Paleontology Brazilian) made very important discoveries that revolutionized the history of Natural Sciences. According to the Chico Mendes ICMBio Institute, Brazil has a total of 21,893 caves (CECAV, 2021). One third are within Conservation Units and the States of Minas, Pará, Bahia and Rio Grande do Norte lead the ranking of Brazilian states with the largest number of natural underground cavities.

Since March 2020 – when the COVID-19 pandemic was declared by the World Health organization – the Guimarães Rosa Course team of volunteers and students have been striving to adapt to the new reality of remote education. Many challenges were found along the way, such as structural and social difficulties, considering the realities of the students. A point that the team noticed is also the impacts on mental health, given the uncertainties of the pandemic scenario and the challenge for ENEM. However, the team of volunteers has been brilliantly identifying ways to avoid dropouts and ensure the permanence of students in the course. Analogous to the exploration of caves, this pandemic can be configured as a dark and still unknown “con”duit, but which can and will be explored and overcome with the help of science and collective action.

“Exploring to know and, knowing to protect”, as well as the dark

‘‘con”duits of the explored caves, which will be illuminated by collective action and with multidisciplinary knowledge. The COVID-19 pandemic will soon be overcome by scientific knowledge, enabling the whole society to celebrate at the highest level, especially in the space of speleology, which knows so well what it is like to celebrate when a new discovery is made. Let 2025 come.

Text: Eleciania Tavares/ Narjara Tércia Pimentel

Translation: Ana Lupe Cavalcante

Um comentário:

Ruan disse...

Muito importante e interessante elucidar ideias que perpassam o imaginário social e, principalmente, denunciar a degradação da fauna e da flora do nosso grande e diverso Brasil!
Maravilhoso trabalho!!!