Environmental education has been becoming in a key strategy for environmental management in the territory; there are each time more public and private initiatives that seek to give priority to environmental education in educational institutions; however, the principles of traditional education still dominate learning models as evidenced in the lack of a teaching approaches to be consistent with the educational reality and respond to the needs of the context, interests and motivations of the students. In this sense, this project seeks to demonstrate a proposal regarding the creation of participatory learning environments supported by the implementation of small-scale ecological systems in the classroom as a pedagogical strategy for environmental education, from the meaning full experiences that put in touch students to scientific knowledge and a better understanding of their social and cultural environment. The project was conducted with students in grades 3o, 4o and 5o of the rural schools La Romelia and La Florida, headquarters of the school San Isidro in the municipality of Belalcazar, Caldas; whose educational model is Escuela Nueva.