EVALUATION OF KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDES AND ABILITY TO IDENTIFY SMALL MAMMALS AMONG STUDENTS OF BIOLOGY

Od konference pod okriljem Združenih narodov o okolju in razvoju (znani tudi kot »The Earth Summit«) v Rio de Janeiru leta 1992, kjer so sprejeli nekaj pomembnih deklaracij o ohranjanju naravnega okolja, je biotska raznovrstnost oz. biodiverziteta postala prvovrsten objekt poučevanja. Poznavanje in razumevanje biodiverzitete, ekologije in ekoloških interakcij je pogojeno s posameznikovimi stališči do narave, poznavanjem teorije in sposobnost identifikacije vrst. Zato je izobraževanje v znanjih iz biologije in usposabljanje za izboljšanje sposobnosti določevanja koristno in nujno potrebno. Ker je prepoznavanje vrst težavno tako za osnovnošolce, srednješolce kakor tudi za študente, smo se odločili, da naredimo raziskavo, kako dobro študenti biologije poznajo in lahko določijo male sesalce (rovke, voluharice, miši, polhe), ki živijo v naši bližini in jih je zaradi podobnega telesnega ustroja dokaj težko ločiti med seboj. Anketo smo izvedli med študenti 3. letnika Fakultete za naravoslovje in matematiko Univerze v Mariboru, na študijskem programu Biologija in …. Z raziskavo smo ugotavljali, kakšna so njihova stališča, poznavanje teorije in sposobnost identifikacije različnih vrst malih sesalcev pred in po opravljenih laboratorijskih vajah. Ugotovili smo, da so študenti v svojih stališčih do malih sesalcev pred laboratorijskimi vajami dokaj nevtralni. Ker se po končanih laboratorijskih vajah njihovo stališče ni spremenilo, se posledično nista izboljšala njihovo znanje in sposobnost prepoznavanja malih sesalcev.The 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (also known as "The Earth Summit") in Rio de Janeiro, where important declarations on nature preservation were passed, shed light on biodiversity which since then became an important object of studies. Comprehending biodiversity, ecology and ecological interactions is a matter of every individual´s attitude to nature, knowledge of theory and ability to identify species. Therefore, biology knowledge and training in species identification is useful and necessary. However, identifying species seems to be causing problems to primary and secondary school students as well as biology students, so this became the topic of our survey. We investigated the students knowledge and ability to identify small mammals (shrews, voles, mice, dormice) living in our environment. These animals are difficult to distinguish because of their similar body structures. The data for the study was collected among biology students of the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics. The survey was used to determine their attitude, basic knowledge and the ability to identify different species of small mammals before and after lab work. It was discovered that students attitude towards small mammals before lab work was fairly neutral and that the lab exercises had not changed it. Consequently, their knowledge or ability to recognize small mammals was not improved