Ecological culture is the main component of ecological education at primary school

Abstract. The article deals with the education of ecological culture at primary school. Special attention is paid to the basic problems in the formation of the ecological culture at primary school. This article deals with the issues of environmental education at primary school, including the method of forming a conscious attitude to nature and to the environment. The article presents the diagnostics results of the ecological culture level in the 4th form. The article tells us about importance of ecological education for senior pupils. Ecological education and care of nature are the main problems among pupils. It`s necessary to pay attention to importance of nature problems.

The problem of ecological education has been relevant at all times. Even K. D. Ushinsky, Ya. A. Komensky, A. S. Makarenko, S. T. Shatsky did not think of organizing a healthy and purposeful pedagogical process outside of nature [1, p. 32]. Developing a responsible attitude towards nature is a complex and long process. Its result should be not only the mastery of certain knowledge and skills, but the development of emotional responsiveness, the ability and desire to protect, to improve as well as to ennoble the natural environment. Pupils who have received certain environmental concepts will be more careful with nature.

The basic methods of the ecological culture of schoolchildren were developed in the works of T. A. Babanova, A. N. Zakhlebny, B. T. Likhachev and others, who noted that a person cannot grow and develop without interacting with the natural environment. His senses and mind develop according to the character of his attitude to nature. That is why the ecological education at primary school is very important, when the knowledge gained about the culture of attitude to nature is systematized and generalized.

Nowadays a very great attention is paid to environmental education. Moreover, it should begin from childhood, from the primary school. In the works of many teachers the item of the ecological education is mentioned.

According to Z. Klipinina, the most effective link in environmental education is school education - training, education and personality`s development in the spirit of responsibility for health (internal human attitude) and the environment (external environmental attitude). A special place on the way of personality development belongs to the primary school [3, p. 4].

An indicator of ecological education, by which one can say about the formation careful attitude to nature, is ecological culture. After researching the level of environmental culture at primary school, we can talk about their environmental education.

For the study of the ecological culture of primary schoolchildren, we chose the 4th form, since at this age, we can confidently say about its formation. There were 22 pupils in this research.  To identify the level of ecological culture, the EKPB method was used. It stands for E - "emotions", K - "knowledge", P - "protection", B - "benefit". This way research the main thing of careful attitude to nature. There are 4 main types of this method:

1) B-Personality thinks nature is an object of beauty ( esthetic type) ;

2) K- Nature is an object of getting knowledge (cognitive type);

3) P- Nature is an object of protection (ethical type);

4) B- Nature as an object of benefit (pragmatic type).

The methodology consists of 12 paragraphs. Each paragraph contains five words. Four words correspond to four types of attitudes, the fifth is for distraction. The diagram shows the interpretation of the results of the EKPB method.

Figure. Results of the EKPB method

It can be seen from the diagram that the priority attitudes to nature among children were:

1) «И» - the perception of nature, as an object of study (cognitive type).

2) «О»-  is the perception of nature, as an object of protection (ethical type).

This technique provides that these two types may be dominant. From the results obtained, it can be concluded that pupils have a good environmental consciousness. They perceive nature as an object of beauty and as an object of study, it indicates good work of teachers who were able to form a careful and humane attitude to nature.

But don`t forget when the children study nature, they may unintentionally harm it. For example, they can pull out rare species of plants for herbaria, conduct experiments on animals and plants, etc. And of course it should be remember that the pupils of the 4th form have few knowledge of nature.

Therefore, it is important to keep up the pupils’ knowledge about ecological culture. To do this, we recommend, as often as possible in the lessons and in extracurricular activities to attract the attention of children to the value of nature. It can be:

- conducting thematic lessons;

- viewing videos;

- virtual and ordinary excursions in particularly protected territories;

- study of information on rare species of plants and animals, as well as the stage of fairy tales, where children can be in the role of animals and plants, etc.

In order to the pupils will not damage Nature, we recommend:

• conduct an explanatory conversation as often as possible, that the harm of nature can be applied unfortunately;
• to acquaint pupils with the behavior  rules in the forest , in hikes and excursions;
• -to clarify the rules for collecting natural material (for hand-made articles, for herbarium, for the collection, for research, etc.);
• -to acquaint children with rare species of plants and animals, so that when walking through the forest, they could determine them and do not harm them;
• to make a visual material for using it in class.
• make memo cards for each pupil;
• As soon as you can spend excursions with pupils in the forest.
• to make a visual material for use in class.

So, the formation of a responsible attitude to nature at primary school is a complex and long process. Environmental education is a main and an important part of the pupil`s education. It is necessary to pay attention to the importance and significance of nature for each person. Parents should talk with their children about the wealth and value of nature for each person, and the teachers must expand and deepen environmental knowledge at school.