Determining the awareness of preschool children regarding the elements in different ecosystems

The main purpose of this research is to determine preschool children's awareness of aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems and to evaluate this awareness in terms of the relationships between living and non-living elements they establish. It aims to reveal how children's basic scientific process skills affect their ability to establish relationships between entities. The sample of the research consists of 5-year-old students attending independent kindergarten within the borders of Van province in the 2021-2022 academic year. 60 students, selected randomly and easily accessible, were included in the research. The research conducted has a mixed pattern; In the qualitative dimension of the study, using the scanning model, the drawings of the marine and terrestrial ecosystems made by the students on blank paper were divided into themes by descriptive analysis with the Draw An Environment Test-Rubric (DAET-R, DAME-R). A correlational study was conducted to determine the closeness between process skills and the ability to establish relationships between living and non-living entities in the environment. As a result of the findings, the elements most frequently used by students in marine ecosystem drawings are; While the human figure (f = 35), octopus (f = 47), algae (f = 27), shark (f = 16), sun (f = 37) and cloud (f = 15) are the most frequently used in terrestrial ecosystem drawings. items; tree (f = 40), grass (f = 37), flower (f = 23), butterfly (f = 14). As a result of examining both aquatic and terrestrial ecosystem drawings, while the students included living and non-living elements, the fact that they were not able to establish a connection between entities belonging to two or more groups within a system understanding reveals that the students in the study group are not sufficiently aware that there is a system understanding in natural environments. While there are significant differences in terms of the total score obtained as a result of the t-test between the students' Rubric scores and scientific process skill scores, there are changes in the sub-steps of process skills. The data obtained were presented in detail and suggestions were made in the light of this information.