Most of the Brazilian coast has reef environments, important ecosystems from both the ecological and human viewpoints, yet under a continuous process of degradation. An instrument that can be used to halt threats to these ecosystems is environmental education (and one of the best places to use it is at school), but environmental perception studies must be first carried out to portray the target group. This study aimed to analyze the perception of students of the Metropolitan Area of Recife (Brazil) on the elements that characterize the importance of reef environments, as well as to evaluate educational tools that would be efficient in promoting awareness about this theme. To achieve this goal, questionnaires were applied to two grades of three public and three private schools before and after an educational intervention based on 291-strong sample analyzed. The questionnaire included ten items that collected the students’ basic data, as well as several aspects on reef environments. In addition, teachers of those grades were interviewed. There were no differences in knowledge between the two types of school; before the intervention, the understanding of the theme was in general poorly constructed in all of the schools studied. However, the five-senses workshop proved to be an efficient instrument for teaching the sciences.