Educational Activities to increase noise awareness between children and young adults – examples from Brazil's Santa Catarina State

摘要

To increase awareness and knowledge about noise pollution and hazards between students of elementary, middle and high-schools and public and private universities Santa Catarina is one of the Brazilian states which develops educational activities under the umbrella of the International Noise Awareness Day. The present work will introduce those activities developed together with institutions like municipal health and education departments or public universities in 2010 and 2011 in Joinville and Florianopolis, the two mayor cities of Santa Catarina. The main focus has been on activities that call for active participation, such as a song writing contest to write a music on noise pollution, a theatre contest being noise the central theme, the development of games about noise, the presentation of noise related histories for the very young and many others. It was found that creative and participative activities were best suited to gather the attention and that information on noise pollution and hazards was quickly assimilated resulting in behavioral changes. The song writing contest and the theatre contest figured out to be very successful, giving rise not only to a change in behavior but also to official slogan of the Brazilian Noise Awareness Day in the 2011 campaign.