Browsing by Subject "myrkyllisten kasvien tunnistaminen"

The purpose of the research was to determine how well Finnish children and youngsters in different ages recognize poisonous and eatable wild plant species and to which characteristics they pay attention to when identifying plants. The purpose was also to find out, how well the pupils and students can estimate if the wild plants are either poisonous or eatable. The goal was to gather knowledge about what factors explain these recognition and estimation skills. Also information was wanted about attitudes of children and youngsters towards recognizing and learning the poisonous and eatable wild plants. The research was made on subjects of 48 children and youngsters from grade 6 in primary school, grade 8 in lower-secondary school and vocational school. Both quantitative and qualitative methods were used. A plant recognition test, where 38 pictures on plants was presented, was made for the all subjects. The subjects were requested to name the plants and classify them to be either poisonous or eatable. In addition six students were interviewed from each class, altogether 18 subjects. The themes of the interviews were the attitudes towards eatable and poisonous wild plants and to learn to recognize species. During the interview pictures of plants were looked at and the subjects told which characteristics they pay attention to when trying to recognize it. The results showed that on average wild plants were recognized insufficiently. Standard variation in responses was large in all classes researched. The subjects got better results in classifying of the plants to be either poisonous or eatable than in naming the plants. This research shows that even when a subject cannot name a plant it is still possible for the subject to classify the plant to be either poisonous or eatable. Gender and being an immigrant explained the recognition skills of poisonous and eatable plants so that girls were somewhat better to recognize plant species and native Finns recognized poisonous and eatable plants better that immigrants. Age did not explain the skills to recognize species directly, since students in lower- secondary school recognized the poisonous and eatable plants better than primary school and vocational school students. In skills to estimate plants' poisonous or eatability there was no difference according to gender, age, or immigrant background. The subjects considered the skills to recognize poisonous and eatable plants important. Learning to recognize plants at school was not considered interesting however. Since the recognition of plants in neighborhood belongs to tasks of general education it is important to think about how the teaching could be made interesting. According to findings of this study, especially the recognition of poisonous plants was considered important by the subjects. This knowledge as well as teaching about possibilities to utilize plants could be used as a way to motivate and teach the students.