Author(s): Hülya GÜLAY OGELMAN, Nazmi DURKAN
Preschool education enables lasting steps to be taken towards sustainable development, which has become widespread in recent years, and whose importance continues to increase. There is a need for studies that establish environmental awareness and support sustainable development throughout the world, especially in developing countries, such as Turkey. Taking this need into consideration, the objective of this study is to introduce the results of the project entitled “We Are Learning About The Soil With Tipitop And His Friends 4” within the scope of the project group activities of The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK) Schools of Nature and Science (4004). This project was conducted in Denizli for 4th time, for the year of 2013. The aim of the project was to introduce soil and concepts related to soil conservation to 5-6 years old pre-school children. The sub-objectives determined to achieve the objective of the project are; to teach children between the ages of 5 and 6, the properties of soil, the organisms that live on/under the soil, the importance of soil, what erosion is, the reasons of erosion, the results of erosion, the issues that arise from these results, and to understand and acknowledge their environment under these terms, and to increase their sensitivity. The sampling of the project was composed of 130 children (65 experimental, 65 control) at the age of 5-6 and enrolled at in kindergartens of primary schools affiliated to National Ministry of Education in the province of Denizli. Research findings demonstrated that soil related knowledge scores of children in the experimental group of the project increased in a statistically significant way compared to the ones in the control group.
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