Building and maintaining a sustainable society requires the achievement of scientific literacy in formal and non-formal education. We aimed to study the prior knowledge of early childhood, primary and secondary students about environmental issues and to use that knowledge as the basis for conducting environmental education activities. Those activities took place at the Botanical Garden of São Paulo for students in the 7th grade of primary education and 3rd year of secondary education. During the visits, we worked on issues related to the environment and citizenship. It was a qualitative study, with participant observation and the record of students' speech during the activities. Categories and subcategories were highlighted in the students' answers, as well as their reflections on science, technology, society and environment, obtained during the environmental education activities.
scientific literacy; non-formal education; environment; Botanical Garden
