Search

Children have a basic knowledge of birds that they observe during their everyday life either in their garden, other gardens, round the house, walking in the local area or in the yard on school gardens. A total of 515 children, aged 3 to 16 (249 girls and 266 boys) enrolled in southern Brazilian public preschools, primary school and secondary schools, were invited to participate in this exploratory study. A semi-structured interview was conducted with 206 pupils asking to name which birds they knew, where they had seen these birds, which ones live around home, which they had seen further away. Additionally, they were asked which birds they knew from a list and the source of this knowledge where they had learned about the birds. They were asked to draw on a sheet of paper a representation of what the word "bird" meant to them. Results show the importance of everyday observations rather than beyond formal education in the children knowledge. Children from the earliest years notice birds in their everyday lives and build a bank of knowledge, gradually acquiring an understanding of adaptation to a variety of habitats. Children notice birds in their lives to differing extent and sources according to the culture in which they are immersed. Experiences of seeing or finding out about birds are encapsulated for many children in the form of narratives and contribute to their mental models of birds and their habitats on which they will drew in formal science later (Biology and Environmental Education). Educational implications are discussed.

?he nature of scientific research goes beyond the learning of concepts and basic manipulation to the key factors of engaging students in identifying relevant evidence and reflecting on its interpretation. It is argued that young children have the ability to acquire viable, realistic concepts of the living world when involved in relevant activities (Tunnicliffe, 2000). Visiting a museum of natural history is an educational experience, which offers, children experiences that cannot be obtained within the classroom and research found that museums are excellent sources of cognitive experiences that complement and/or enrich the curriculum of formal education (Dillon et al., 2016). Dioramas have a specific context, which gives visitors the opportunity to be creative and have more learning opportunities when they engage with them (Achiam et al., 2014). This paper draws on data that were gathered at a natural history museum. These data were the spontaneous conversations of child visitors and a workshop with structured educational activities with a pre- and post-test research design, which provided the opportunity for children to observe science in action in a moment of time. These data focused on aspects of historical and experimental aspects of science in action shown in the positions and environments of the animals featured which may be identified in natural history dioramas.

Children from southern and northern Brazil have a basic knowledge of plants, which they observe during their everyday life. Children ages between 3 to 10 years old (kindergarten & primary school), but the majority of them in the age group of 4-5 (total 145) were asked to draw what they think is a plant (total sample = 332). Afterwards, a equal number of boys and girls randomly chosen were interviewed individually (mix ability) to list plants they said they knew and where they had seen them. Then they were asked to give exemplars of the local plants which they had seen. These data from the exploratory study show that pupils are in touch with their environment and recognize plants that are part of it. The everyday experiences of these children in school and out of school, at home and in leisure activities with family and friends, contribute to their knowledge about plants and such knowledge is complemented in the preschool and primary school classes by appropriate teaching. Educational implications of these findings are discussed.

Many children learn about and experience animals in the everyday environment where they live and attend school. One way to obtain information about children's understanding of concepts or phenomena is by using their drawings in combination with written responses or interviews. This study assesses how much Slovenian students 10-15 years old (in sixth to ninth grade) know about owls by analysing their drawings and written responses. The study included 473 students. From assessing students' drawings and written responses, it can be concluded that the respondents had some knowledge of owls' appearance, their behaviours, diet and habitats. The differences between students in different grades regarding the representations of owls was not statistically significant. Some students had misconceptions about owls, such as the idea that owls can turn their heads 360 degrees, or they confused the long ear-tufts with external parts of the ears. The students' written responses provided additional information on their ideas about owls; particularly about owls' specific behaviours, diet, and conservational status. However, some information, such as depicting owls' body parts and body proportions or their habitats, was more clearly depicted with drawings. One third of the students drew owls in trees and forests, which makes owls good candidates for promoting forest conservation.

Children learn to recognise animals from their earliest years through actual sightings in their own observations of their world, but also through second-hand representations in various forms of media. Young learners begin with a template specimen to which they refer when they see another animal that resembles it, naming the animal accordingly. Gradually, they learn to distinguish members of the subordinate category--bird in the case of the present paper--into subcategories. Accessing their mental model through drawings is one means of discerning their interpretation of both phyla and species. If children of increasing ages are studied, a rationale for the understanding of a such concepts may be forthcoming. The present study investigated children from 6 years to 14 years though interviews, as well as through the drawings on which the paper focuses. As children mature, they observe more and more details about the birds that they see, thus increasing their knowledge not from school but from their own observations outside school.

Children's knowledge about human anatomy can be examined through several different ways. Making a drawing of the internal features of the human body has been frequently used in recent studies. However, there might be a serious difference in results obtained from a general instruction to students ("What you think is inside your body") and specific (e.g. "Draw bones that are inside your body") instruction. We examined relationships between these two types of instructions using drawings of the urinary and endocrine systems as the examples with pupils aged 10-14 years. An ANCOVA showed significant relationships between general and special instruction, but further comparison showed significant correlation only for urinary system. The level of students' drawings significantly increases with previous knowledge about human anatomy and age. These findings suggest that relationships between two types of instructions strongly depend on the complexity of the organ system that children draw as well as their previous knowledge. We propose that drawings from general instructions are therefore appropriate especially for comparative studies. Special instructions are better for eliciting a deeper understanding of children knowledge about human anatomy. (Contains 4 tables and 14 figures.)

The story from the museum may not be read by visitors, who come with their own knowledge and understanding and read a different story in the animals. The visitors read a story which makes sense to them and builds on what they already know and interests them. Increasingly, robotics models are being used in natural history museums, science centers, and zoos to attract visitors and tell some kind of story. What do the visitors actually talk about when looking at such robotic animals? The visitors reported on in this paper were primary school groups and families. Do they talk about similar things at the same exhibits, even though the schools visit for educational purposes and the families of their free choice in their leisure time? Furthermore, within school groups, do different subgroups respond in a different way, gauged by the content of their conversations, to similar robotics? This paper studies the conversational content of primary school and family groups at two different robotics dinosaur exhibits in the Natural History Museum, London. One of the exhibits is no longer on display. These verbal responses were analyzed through using a systemic network. Results indicate that visitors commented on a very simple story told through the design of the exhibit and the movements of the specimens. Visitors also noticed the salient features of the animatronics models as reptiles. (Contains 4 figures, 4 tables, and 1 endnote.)

Trees are important to the environment owing to their ecological services. However, many aspects of their form and function are poorly understood by the public. From their earliest years, children have an elementary knowledge about plants which they gain from their everyday observations, their parents and other people and from their kindergarten and primary schooling. The goal of this research was to investigate Polish children's understanding of trees' internal structure. This cross-age study involved 5-year-old children from kindergarten (n = 57, 26 boys and 31 girls) and 7-year-old children (n = 105, 57 boys and 48 girls) and 10-year-old children (83 children, 36 boys and 47 girls) from primary school. Participants were asked to draw the internal structure of a tree. The results of the study showed that there were some significant differences in the responses between age groups and between the genders. Nevertheless, there were some ideas that were shared among all age groups indicating that they might be resistant to change. The study also identified some alternative conceptions about the internal structure of plants and the influence of the media on children's ideas.