Interest in useful plants among primary school pupils in Štajerska

Plants are living organisms with an enormous importance in sustaining the life on our planet. However, numerous researchers conclude that people are far more attracted to animals than plants. They claim that people are suffering from 'plant blindness' and that plants are no more but a background of our everyday life. But in schools it is important that plants and animals this diploma, was to reveal which characteristics of useful plants students find more interesting and could therefore be used to motivate them in studying natural sciences. An anonymous questionnaire was used, containing 17 questions. Questionnaire was given to 361 students from 6th to 9th grade from two primary schools: 186 participating students were from Primary school in Polzela and 175 from Primary school in Žalec. Students exhibited above average interest in 11 out of 15 plant themes. Two hypothesis were made. First hypothesis proposed that younger students and older students differ in the types of useful plants they find interesting. This hypothesis was confirmed, after establishing nine out of fifteen statistically important differences. Second hypothesis proposed that male and female students differ in the types of useful plants they find interesting. This hypothesis was also confirmed: ten out of fifteen statistically important differences were established