Discutendo di biodiversità per condividere l’importanza di una costruzione sociale del sapere

Referring to a workshop activity held at the Civic Museum of Zoology in Rome, in this article is discussed the implementation of the constructivist paradigm to a situation of non-formal education. The "Hall of Biodiversity" in the Museum is an ideal context in which to develop a discussion on the concept of biodiversity and its mental representations for the non-specialist audiences; the participants in the debate come from different organizations involved in the field of environmental education to children and adults. Starting from the sharing of personal experiences, first of all are explored the relationships between the impact of the place where people spend their lives (urban vs. rural) and the construction of the awareness about the environmental goods care, one of the steps that the group believes essential for a deep understanding of the concept of biodiversity. The discussion then develops considering the concepts of species, ecosystem, interaction and balance, frequently emerged from the shared experiences; they could be a guiding thread of a possible path of non-formal education. The educational process could develop by observing the increasing frequency of natural catastrophes that the public is not able to relate with the changes of the balance between the different components of ecosystems. In this way the group agrees that people could better understand the impact of man on nature, often supported by economic interests. In a widespread lack of accredited training opportunities form teacheres and educators, the awareness of the role played by the media in the distribution of an often biased information reinforces the need to undertake educational programs that offer broader and more integrated vision of environmental problems. This is even more urgent given the growing centrality of the concepts of uncertainty and complexity in the search for solutions to the problems associated with sustainable development. Transdisciplinarity and participation seem to be the best road to introduce actions for democracy and active citizenship; these actions reproduce the reciprocity of the relationship between different components of a system as one of the fundamental characteristics of the concept of biodiversity.