Investigation of environmental perceptions of primary school students living in urban and rural areas

The purpose of this qualitative study is to determine the perceptions on environment, environmental pollution and the impact of human being on the environment of 4th grade primary schools students living in rural and urban areas. In order to present the differences among students in rural and urban areas in Kütahya, one school from city center, one school from sub-urban area, one school from a county, one school from a town and one school from a village were selected for the study. Thus, a total of 100 students selected form these schools participated in the study. As for data sources, students' concept maps, their definitions of environment, their compositions and pictures on environmental pollution were used. The data collected form the students were subjected to content analysis and descriptive analysis, as qualitative data analyses procedures. The results pointed out that; •Students produced 131 different concepts associated with the environment and they mostly focused on biotic and a-biotic factors of the environment •In their definitions of the environment, students generally focused on biotic and abiotic factors along with natural and artificial aspects of the environment •Students examined the impact of human being on the environment as positive and negative •In their pictures drawn on environmental pollution, they used 45 different components and mostly mentioned soil pollution (trash thrown on the soil) as environmental pollution