Sol, jord och vatten.
Barns tankar om den ekologiska processen
Studies show that the interest and knowledge about science among teenagers is decreasing. They also reveal the difficulties to explain the ecological processes and that the ideas about the nature are collected from everyday life and early school years.The intention of this investigation was to find out more about children?s ideas and knowledge about the ecological processes and to compare these results with the curriculum.The method was a questionnaire and interviews with children in school year 1 ? 6. The aim of the studies was also to find out if any progress connected to age could be found, concerning understanding of the ecological processes.The results showed difficulties in achieving the predestined goals for biology and chemistry concerning ecology cycles and they differed a lot between the children. Often the learning process showed very little progress. No matter the age there was a huge difference individually in their knowledge and understanding of the nature. Many of the children in this research had the idea about the soil to be a final destination for decomposition rather than a part of an ecology cycle. Also the idea about plants getting their food from the soil showed to be common.Keywords: ecological processes, early school years, biology, children?s ideas, circulation