Monumental trees as a way of counter plant blindness: conceptions of children before and after science activities

• Autor(a) principal: Lopes, Raquel Pires
• Data de Publicação: 2018
• Outros Autores: Reis, Catarina Schreck, Quaresma, Sofia, Trincão, Paulo Renato
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: https://doi.org/10.34624/id.v10i5.11129

Several studies have shown the decline of interest in studying plants, not only in adults, but also in children and teenagers, being the lack of recognition of its importance known as plant blindness. To counter this trend, the project “Joaquim Vieira de Natividade for kids – from acorn to tree” was developed, in order to study the influence of children’s attitudes and knowledge on plants, and specifically monumental trees from Mediterranean forest. The project involved 273 children from primary schools, from Alcobaça and Figueiró dos Vinhos, Central Portugal, in exploration of botanic issues, in outdoors activities in non-formal learning settings. Qualitative and quantitative data (drawing and interviews) were collected and analyzed to identify the conceptions of children about monumental trees, before and after de development of the activities. After the intervention, the results showed that the children’s drawings reflectedmonumental trees with greater detail and native trees and the answers to the interviews a greater diversity of concepts about the theme. The project deserved prominence in several national media, which suggests attribution of relevance by the community.