The importance of soils in the environment is frequently overlooked and undervalued. It is therefore necessary to develop "soil awareness", within an educational process that is focused on a concept of sustainability in the man-nature relationship. There are many forms, moments and opportunities for environmental education based on a pedological approach. This ensemble of methods and topics represents Soil Education, an essential part of environmental education. Soil education aims to bring the significance of soils into the lives of people, and consequently the need for conservation and sustainable land use. Just as environmental education, soil education is a formation process that must be dynamic, permanent and participative. A program of soil and environmental education was created that works with formal and informal education in the region of Viçosa. The program is theoretically and methodologically based on constructivism and the pedagogy of Paulo Freire, using a holistic approach, participative methods and practices of projects pedagogy . This approach does more than provide a learning process based on knowledge transference, by promoting investigation and experimentation based on the previous knowledge people have. The fact that soil is an important component of the natural and human environment everyone is familiar with makes meaningful learning possible and is a dynamic force for changing values and attitudes towards the environment, i.e., helps build an environmental/planetary awareness.
environmental education; meaningful learning; man-environment relation