Investigation of attitudes of secondary school students towards decrease of biodiversity and the importance of biodiversity education

This study was conducted to investigate the attitudes of secondary school, 8th grade students towards the loss of biodiversity. It has been examined whether student attitudes towards biodiversity loss differ according to school types, the level of identification of wild animals, sex, age, ownership of domestic animals. This study is quantitative descriptive research. The range of the study is constituted by- 8th grade students of Antalya, Muratpaşa, Kepez and Manavgat regions. Evaluation scale of the study has been applied to three different middle-school with a total of 288 students (144 girls 50%, 140 boys 48.6%, and undefined gender ratio 1.4%). With the curriculum prepared in detail, it is possible to eliminate the deficiencies of the students by interacting with nature and training them. In this way, to students can be given opportunities, to observe and recognize nature, diversity of the organisms, interactions between the organisms with the presence of their teachers. After that, it is possible to raise sensitive and conscious individuals towards their environment.