Abstract:

As environmental conservation is one of today's emerging challenges, promoting environmental awareness becomes an essential step in the search for more environmentally sustainable human behavior, especially among the younger generations. When this generation is described by its affinity with multimedia products, challenging them to create multimedia products, combined with Design Thinking approaches, could bring about the human behavioral changes that are so sought after. In this scenario, this paper presents a study carried out in an educational context, aiming to understand how the creation of multimedia environmental awareness products by secondary school students, using the Design Thinking approach, can help to promote the adoption of environmentally sustainable behaviors, both in students and in the community. The study develops from a socio-critical paradigm based on qualitative action research, and worked with 87 students that participated in the project, along 22 lessons that took place in the subject of Citizenship, over a period of six months. Data was collected through direct and non-participant observation, with the research diary as the data collection tool. Although the study is still ongoing, preliminary results suggest a change towards the adoption of more environmentally sustainable behaviors from the students involved in the study.

Keywords:

Design Thinking, Multimedia Products, Environmental Education.