The research was developed in municipal schools of Arroio do Meio (RS) from 2005 to 2008. It involved six Complete Elementary Schools, with a total of 129 teachers and 1653 students. The aim was to develop a comparative analysis/interpretation based on data from survey questionnaires applied at the start (2005) and at the end (2008). In this process, changes were considered in relation to teachers’ representations of the environment and their understanding of environmental education, students’ understanding of the environment, themes addressed, methodological strategies adopted, and assessment tools and criteria used during the Environmental Education activities. The fi rst data collection was in 2005, with the application of a semi-structured questionnaire involving 50 teachers and 530 students from 5th to 8th grades. After the fi rst data collection, we invested in a formative Environmental Education process developed from 2005 to 2008, consisting of two separate phases: (1) formation of a study group on the environment theme involving teachers, and (2) development of socioenvironmental projects in the schools. The second data collection was in 2008, at the end of the research, involving 47 teachers and 440 students from 5th to 8th grades. We used the program Sphnix Brasil - version 5.1 (2008) to produce charts from the data, followed by comparative analysis of the data collected in the two surveys, 2005 and in 2008. Based on the comparison of analysis/interpretation of the surveys applied in the pre- and post- project phases, it was evident that the formative process in Environmental Education, associated with educational projects, enabled a different way of experiencing and constructing the environmental theme, which is traditionally studied in a conventional and conservative way. This proposal is therefore characterized as a possible means of inserting Environmental Education in the school context, in a critical and transforming way.