The views of fourth graders about enviromental topics: Manisa-Sarigöl sample

The answers of what the opinions of primary school 4th grade students about environment have been searched in this research. The method of scanning has been used to define the opinions in terms of the factors of sex and environment of school(socioeconomic level) in the research. In the research, ?The scale of environmental opinions? (Çevre Görüş Ölçeği), in the type of the five Likert the thirty questions, which was improved by Özpınar(2009) has been used. The city of Manisa constitutes the macrocosm of the research, 4th grade students studying at the primary schools in the rural and center areas of Sarıgöl constitute the sample of the research. It has been reached 22 schools from 24 schools taking place on the data taken from the Directorate of National Education. There are 360 students in the sample. Most of the students are 10-11 year old students dwelling on the rural areas, making a living via agriculture; especially, winegrowing, tobacco growing, work of a tradesman and public service.Since the data is not proper to the normal range, the test of Mann- Whitney U and Kruskal- Wallis H, the methods which are not parametric, have been used in the study.According to the findings obtained from the research, the qualitative response of the 4th grade students about the environment is on the level of ?I agree?. It has been observed that there is a difference making sense, among the students? ideas about the environment depending on the school?s dwelling unit, which is in favor of the schools in the center. It has been observed that there is no difference making sense depending on sex among the opinions of the students. When it is examined if the dwelling units of the students are taken into consideration, it can be said that the opinions of students living in the center of the town are more positive. It has been observed that the level of parents? education has a meaningful difference in terms of the opinions of the children towards the environment. According to the findings acquired, the level of parents? education has created a positive effect on the opinions of the children towards the environment. Jobs of the parents have been a meaningful difference on the ideas of the students towards the environment. The children of a civil-servant mother and a retired father have the most positive opinions towards the environment. Key Words: Students of primary school, Opinions about the environment.