Theoretical section of this work includes the introduction to the Natural Science Day (NSD henceforth), one of the established activity days in the curricula of Slovenian primary schools. By using various methods of work and learning, NSD’s allow the pupils to improve their basic knowledge defined by the curriculum. NSD’s are organized as regular part of the curriculum through the entire 9-year period of primary education. Every year the teacher organizes three NSD’s, each encompassing five pedagogic hours. The class teachers plan and design NSD’s independently. Guidelines for the organization of NSD’s are provided by the NSD concept memo, a document published by the Slovenian Ministry of Education, Science and Sport. In general, NSD’s should provide the pupils with high quality activities, positive experience, motivation for research and positive attitude towards nature.
The empirical part of this work includes a survey of the experience of fifth-grade pupils with NSD’s. The selection of the fifth grade pupils is based on a reasonable amount of experience acquired over five years of school. The survey confirms that the pupils have positive experience with NSD’s and that they all remember they had three NSD’s per year. The pupils confirmed that they performed research and investigation on various topics, visited research organizations, worked in the nature and crafted several creations. More than half of the respondents learned interested details about the investigated subjects, thereby expanding their knowledge. Also, the majority of respondents expressed support for having more than three NSD’s per year.
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