Instituto Butantan: o uso de trilhas e espaços verdes como ferramenta de promoção da saúde pública e divulgação científica

Abstract

Outdoor activities in nature can provide positive experiences with great potential to promote human health as well as positive attitudes towards conservation. Urban parks such as the one that is part of Instituto Butantan can be used as a tool to improve public health and scientific outreach. In addition to the research about the park’s biodiversity and its conservation, this green space has been used in the last four years as an open museum of natural history and a means of scientific dissemination of the knowledge about its animals and plants. Through the elaboration of scripts with themes focused on science and natural history, the aim of this work was to increase the options of activities exploring this area, stimulating the use of trails and the other green contexts as a tool to promote human health and at the same time expanding the communication of science to a larger and more diverse audience. Thus, these scripts and activities were developed in order to promote the continuous use of trails and green areas, increasing the number of outreach possibilities and promoting scientific education in non-formal spaces. The scripts developed and presented here are: Biodiversity Trail, Where is the non- conventional food plant?, Endless Cycle and Garden of Pollinators. As a way of intermediating a narrative for these areas, a survey of the changes in landscape and vegetation along time was also carried out, as a framework for the narratives about the Forest of the Butantan Institute.