ECOVERSIDADE

All courses fall under the umbrella of Ecoversidade, a word combining Ecological and University. Courses presented at Ecoversidade are rooted in a new vision of education that helps students better understand the world in which they live, addressing the complexity and interconnectedness of problems such as poverty, wasteful consumption, environmental degradation, population, health, conflict and human rights that threaten our future.

Ecoversidade was tailored to respond to the urgency of mobilizing a new generation of informed community leaders in sustainable practices. The curriculum provides comprehensive and interdisciplinary subjects that range from permaculture, renewable energy, and natural building courses. 

Ecoversidade is dedicated to education for sustainable living by fostering a profound understanding of the natural world, grounded in direct experience, that leads to sustainable patterns of living. Ecoversidade functions as a model of viable rural settlement, incorporating the realities of appropriate technologies, living systems, and sustainable community life from a holistic perspective.

We believe that Sustainability Education must include critical thinking. Central to critical thinking, is the capacity to imagine and explore alternatives to existing ways of thinking and living. Realizing that so many ideas and actions spring from assumptions that might be inappropriate for their lives, critical thinkers are continually exploring new ways of thinking about aspects of their lives.

With a socially critical curriculum, teachers teach less often by didactic approaches such as telling and testing and more often by encouraging inquiry, critical reflection, and action. They work with students on topics that the students and teachers believe to be important and through tasks, they find rewarding and significant. They become jointly responsible for a process in which all grow. Therefore, teachers will be encouraged to explore a wide range of strategies in educating students about sustainability.

Annette Greene states that if teachers are to initiate young people into an ethical existence, they themselves must attend more fully than they normally have to their own lives and its requirements. Teachers and any educator, has to work with their mechanical life, to overcome their submergence in the habitual, even in what they perceive to be virtuous, and ask ‘why’ with which learning and moral reasoning begin.

The educators of Ecoversidade encourage a 'hands on approach' to learning. As such, many practical and activities are included in the seminars and courses. Please take note of the following work related guidelines. When working on any community project remember - Safety First.

The program is connected to the national university in Brasilia (UnB) as well as many government ministries, schools and other non-profit organizations.

Ecoversidade offers several distinct program. 

• Applied Permaculture for a Sustainable Future
• Water Management
• Bioconstruindo - Natural Building
• Living Routes - Ecological Design
• Sustainable Schools
• Ecovillage Design
• Renewable Energies Design
• Permaculture on the Table

Shorter courses are currently offered in Portuguese, however for a large group an English version can be organized as most instructors are multi lingual. Also, with prior arrangement, simultaneous translation can be arranged.

While we aim for an appropriate mix of academia and fun, please be aware that this is not Summer Camp or Eco Disneyland. It may help to think of IPEC as a living/working permaculture construction site. We will always do our best to make your stay here as comfortable as possible.