Investigation of middle school 7th grade students' awareness of nature elements

The aim of this study is to determine middle school 7th grade students' awareness about the biotic and abiotic factors which constituted nature and to examine the effects of various variables including gender, living place, accompanying the events about nature, the mother' and father' educational level and socio-economic status. The study was designed as survey design. A total of 427 students whose schools are located in villages and urban part of central Kutahya. For this purpose, the awareness of Nature Survey is designed. This survey is consisted of three parts. First part is constituted from demographic variables, the second part of consisted of 40 items and lastly, the third parts is consisted of visuals about biotic and abiotic factors. The data gathered is analyzed by using frequency tables and percentages. Besides independent sample T-test and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) are used for examining the effect of various variables. The results revealed that middle school 7th grade students' awareness about biotic and abiotic factors is insufficient. No statistically significant effect of gender and the effect of accompanying the events about nature are detected. The students who live in the urban areas are found to be more aware about the biotic and abiotic factors when compared to the students who live in villages. Moreover, the students who have educated parents and high socio-economic status are found to be more aware of the biotic and abiotic factors. Key Words: The components nature, middle school students, awareness