Children's ideas about nutrition and digestive system of humans, animals and plants

The subject of our research is a topic quite abstract to children. We were interested in how children perceive things invisible to them - the functioning of a human body, or in our case – the digestive system. At the same time, we wanted to know how children perceive feeding of animals and plants. The purpose of the diploma thesis was to find out what ideas children have of the subject of the research (feeding of people, animals and plants), and to influence their misconceptions on the basis of data obtained with the help of activities prepared in advance. In the research conducted in 2008, 72 children of Ciciban Kindergarten in Novo mesto, from five to six years of age, were included. A survey was a technique used for data collection. It contained 11 questions of an open-ended type, most of them relate to children's opinion. It was conducted twice, namely before and after the execution of the prepared activities, on a smaller sample. The data obtained was statistically processed. The comparison of the two surveys has shown that with planned activities we have successfully influence children's perceptions of the digestive system and feeding of people, animals and plants. The majority of children has changed their misconception and opinions of the digestive system and feeding of people, animals and plants