Throughout history, snakes have been presented as objects of admiration and fear. On account of people's ignorance, naive conceptions or even misconceptions about them, many are being killed. There are 11 species of snakes living in the Slovene area and all of them are protected by law. In the primary school science and biology curricula, there are very few topics where learning content on snakes can be included. For that reason, pedagogical workshops for pupils were conducted by the Ljubljana ZOO (266 pupils, aged 11-14 from 8 primary schools were included), where snakes were introduced to pupils. We also decided to explore the influence of the workshops on the pupils' attitude and knowledge about snakes. For that purpose a questionnaire on snakes was prepared and filled out by half of students before, and the other half after the workshops. The results show that the pupils who have come into contact with a snake beforehand (held snakes), have more positive attitudes towards snakes. The data was also processed with regard to pupils' gender and age (11–12: younger pupils, 13–14: older pupils). These categories did not indicate any statistically significant differences in attitude or knowledge. After participating in educational workshops, all pupils had more positive attitudes towards snakes and more knowledge about snakes in comparison with the students who were surveyed prior to the workshop. The results of our research can motivate teachers to include topics about snakes into their lessons, since this allows the pupils to get better acquainted with snakes, their role in the ecosystems and the importance of their conservation. The research shows the positive influence of learning through direct experience, which can motivate teachers toward using materials and living organisms during lessons, planning different activities, fieldwork or visits of nature conservation institutions, where pupils have the opportunity to be in direct contact with animals.
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