ABSTRACT
Most children have an intrinsic interest in the living world. They develop their own ideas about the workings of plants and animals. They have their own theories about how they reproduce their kind, how they interact with each other and their environment, and how they have come to be the way they are. They form theories without regard to much of the teaching they experience in the context of formal schooling. Children gain this knowledge from a wide variety of sources including their own firsthand experience, the conversations they have with their parents and other adults, their discussions with other children, and from watching television and reading magazines. Onto this rich background is superimposed what they learn from their teachers from preschool to high school. All of these sources of knowledge and understanding interact as students construct their own views of plant and animal functioning and their interrelationships in the living world.
