Young people are less and less interested in natural science and the same holds for their genuine contact with nature. The comparison of memorisation of information about various animal and plant species could contribute to the identification of motivational factors that increase interest in natural science. The research was based on the descriptive and causal non-experimental empirical method and an empirical quantitative approach. A total of 90 fourth and fifth graders of the Ig Primary School participated in the research. Both teaching and learning natural science and technology are usually founded on textbooks. To this end, we analysed graphic materials that are contained in certain textbooks to "illustrate" the learning content. Our findings indicate that animals, more precisely vertebrates, are predominant in textbooks. Even the survey results suggest that the participants generally like vertebrates more than other species and also memorise information about them better. This could be attributed to the fact that natural science subjects tend to focus on vertebrates. The pupils performed best when they were required to classify the species they knew the most about. The goal of the research is to contribute to the field of didactics of natural science and educational psychology and draw more attention to endangered species.
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