The importance of pollination: the conceptions of children in the early years of elementary school

Abstract

Science teaching naturally awakens interest in children, as it promotes curiosity, questioning and the search for experimentation based on events related to their daily lives. This article aims to investigate the previous conceptions of elementary school students about pollination and the importance of bees in order to stimulate interest in nature preservation, and enable a possible change and/or expansion of previous knowledge about thematic. The research has a qualitative approach, typified as a case study, developed with 89 students. A semi-structured questionnaire was applied as a collection instrument and the results were analyzed based on Bardin’s content analysis. The results indicate the importance of knowing the students’ previous conceptions in order to understand the values indicated by the research subjects regarding the environment. They also demonstrate that participants presented fragmented prior conceptions regarding the pollination process and a reductionist view of the importance of bees. Therefore, it is up to the teacher to use teaching methodologies to promote learning in which the student has contact with nature, enabling a comprehensive understanding of these concepts and an appreciation and understanding of terms and concepts about pollination and the importance of bees. It is noteworthy that even knowing some concepts and terms, there is a need to investigate the depth of this knowledge and its interrelationships for the construction of knowledge.