This research was motivated by the author s professional experience, as a Geography teacher, working as a member of the team responsible for the Project of Environmental Education for Public School Children, which has been taking place within the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro campus since 1998. This project was developed by the Interdisciplinary Center for the Environment - NIMA/PUC-Rio to promote the integration of the public schools with the university,throughout Environmental Education classes. The goal of the project is to develop ethical-environmental values for the exercise of future generations citizenship. The purpose of this initiative is to serve the poor children, who attend classes of the public schools of Gávea, Rocinha, Vidigal, Parque da Cidade e Cruzada de São Sebastião neighborhoods, located near by PUC- Rio campus. Based on this experience, the author describes the perspectives for social change of the Project of Environmental Education for Public School Children. The core subject of this dissertation is an analysis of this project, taken as a model response to the determinations of the recent Federal and State Laws for environmental education, with emphasis on non-formal education. In other words, this essay describes the educational actions and practices designed to wake up collective sensibility towards environmental issues, relying on the partner ship established by schools with universities and companies. This dissertation is concerned with the ethical valves which comes out of the relation ship between mankind and its surrounding nature and the transformations that can be accomplished by an Environmental Education Project such as this one offered to the children of the public education system of the State of Rio de Janeiro.