Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Sci

Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science & Technology Education, 2011, 7(2), 115-120
Copyright © 2011 by EURASIA
ISSN: 1305-8223
Children’s Ability to Recognise
Toxic and Non-Toxic Fruits
Jana Fančovičová
Trnava University, Trnava, SLOVAKIA
Pavol Prokop
Trnava University, Trnava & Institute of Zoology, Bratislava, SLOVAKIA
Received 17 October 2010; accepted 29 March 2011
Children’s ability to identify common plants is a necessary prerequisite for learning botany.
However, recent work has shown that children lack positive attitudes toward plants and
are unable to identify them. We examined children’s (aged 10-17) ability to discriminate
between common toxic and non-toxic plants and their mature fruits presented in a
colourful PowerPoint presentation. We found that toxic plants were less well known than
plants with edible fruits and those younger children were more willing to consume toxic
fruits than older children. Children abilities to distinguish toxic and non-toxic plants did
not increase with age suggesting that school does not play the primary role in building
children’s knowledge about toxic plants. This study supports the idea that children’s
knowledge about plants is limited and more effort should be dedicated to teaching about
toxic plants that are often harmful especially to inexperienced children.
Keywords: Children, Fruits, Plants, Risk, Toxicity
INTRODUCTION
Many plants, animals and microorganisms contain
substances which can be toxic to humans. Toxic plants
are everywhere around us, they grow in different places,
and thus at least some of them are potentially harmful
to humans. Despite preventative efforts, more than one
million of pupils younger than 6 year olds are poisoned
in America every year (Litovitz et al., 1992). Children
aged 2 are relatively frequently consuming poisonous
plants and/or chemicals (Jacobson et al., 1989).
Importantly, the risk of recurrent poisoning is about
30% (Litovitz et al., 1989).
Recent records from the National toxicology
information centre of Slovakia (NTIC) show that,
intoxication by poisonous plants has increased. Plačková
et al. (2006) state that accidental poisoning of children
by ingestion of plants causes more than 50% of all
poisoning cases in Slovakia. Lack of children’ as well as
parents’ knowledge (Polakoff, Lacouture, & Lovejoy,
1984), the attractive appearance of plants (colour,
fashion, fragrance) and similarity between some toxic
and nontoxic plants (Plačková, Cagáňová, & Kresánek,
2006) are probably the most frequent reasons for such
incidents. Consequences of intoxications are varied in
their harm (but include activating irritation of the
digestive system, contact dermatitis or allergic
responses) (e.g. Plačková, Cagáňová, & Kresánek, 2006).
It is suggested that low identification skills of plants
are responsible for consumption of some poisonous
plants by children. This assumption makes sense
considering that the risk of toxic plant consumption is
highest among younger children who are probably less
aware about the toxicity of some plants or their fruits.
Although there is lack of data on school children, we
hypothesize that girls might be expected to be better at
plant identification, because girls have been shown to
have a greater interest in plants (Dawson, 1983; Lohr et
al., 2004; Hong, Shim, & Chang, 1998; Gatt et al., 2007;
Prokop et al., 2007a, b; Schussler & Olzak, 2008).
Recent research confirmed that girls have better
knowledge of plants than boys (Fančovičová & Prokop,
Correspondence to: Jana Fančovičová, Assistant Professor
of Biology Education, Department of Biology, Faculty of
Education, Trnava University, Priemyselná 4, PO Box 9,
918 43 Trnava, SLOVAKIA
E-mail: fankaj@gmail.com
J. Fancovicova & P. Prokop
116 © 2011 EURASIA, Eurasia J. Math. Sci. & Tech. Ed., 7(2), 115-120
in press). Familiarity, going to the nature also influences
children’s ability to identify plants (Lindemann-
Matthies, 2005), so children who experience
environment more frequently would have more
experience with plants and, consequently, these children
would be more knowledgeable about plants.
To date, surprisingly, little is known about children
knowledge of toxic plants. Few indirect evidences
suggest that school age children have poor plant
identification skills. Bebbington (2005) for example
found that only a few children were able to name more
than three very common wild flowers in the UK
suggesting that learners’ knowledge about basic plant
species is poor. Surprisingly we are not aware of any
study focused specifically on children’s abilities to
recognize toxic and non-toxic plants or fruits.
According to the Slovakian biology curriculum, children
at age 11/12 (Grade 6) should be able to identify seven
species of toxic plants, out of which three are
commonly eaten by children and cause intoxications
(Plačková, Cagáňová, & Kresánek, 2006). Unfortunately,
the ability of Slovakian children to identify plants in
general, and their abilities to recognize poisonous and
edible fruits have never been investigated. Deeper
insight into children’s knowledge of plants might be of
special interest for curriculum developers and science
teachers because answers on these questions would
significantly contribute to development of biology
textbooks and/or improving education strategies in
biology in the future.
This study was designed to examine children’s
abilities to distinguish toxic and non-toxic (mostly
native) fruits in Slovakia. In contrast to traditional
studies measuring knowledge, in which multiple choice
tests or open/ended questions are used, we stimulated
children to answer our questions by showing colourful
pictures of plants and their fruits with a PowerPoint
presentation. This approach allow more precise
examination, because children are not given only
abstract words on sheets of paper, but questions are
supported with colourful pictures of plants and their
ripe fruits.
We predicted that:
1) Females will have better plant identification skills than
males.
2) Younger children will be more willing to consume toxic
fruits compared to their older counterparts.
3) Children will show more experience with non-toxic plants
compared to toxic plants and consequently non-toxic
plants will be more often identified correctly than toxic
plants.
METHODS
Participants
One hundred and seventeen randomly selected
elementary school pupils (aged 10-17, 62% females)
from two Slovakian elementary schools were involved in
research during their free lesson. Data collection took
place in December 2009.
Research instruments and procedure
We presented a Power point presentation with
twenty different colour pictures of plants and their
mature fruits. All pictures were freely downloaded from
Google. Each picture was of high quality, and contained
both leaves and fruits of a particular plant. Nine plants
were toxic and eleven were non-toxic. Selection of
plants followed two criteria: 1. availability (rare plants
were not included) and 2. incidence of intoxication
(more risky plants based on incidence of intoxication
published by Plačková et al. 2006 were included).
We adjusted picture sizes to a uniform magnification
scale. Pictures had similar contrast and brightness. The
pictures were presented in random order. Each picture
was presented for 1 minute. During this time,
participants rated (a) willingness to eat fruits
(Willingness) (Would you eat fruits of this plant?), (b)
whether they thought that their identification is correct
(Confidence) (Do you know the species of the plant?),
(c) experiences with plants (Experiences) (Have you
ever seen this plant?), (d) perceived toxicity of the fruit
State of the literature
• Many studies show that low identification skills of
plants are responsible for consumption of
poisonous plants by children.
• The risk of consumption is highest among younger
children who are less aware about the toxicity of
some plants or their fruits.
• Researches confirm better knowledge of girls
about plants and their greater interest in plant than
boys.
• Going to the nature influences ability of children
to determine plants.
Contribution of this paper to the literature
• The study supports that children have few
experiences with toxic plants and low ability to
distinguish between toxic and non-toxic plants.
• Younger children are more willing to eat toxic
fruits and have less experience with toxic fruits.
• Girls have the same identification abilities and
experience with toxic plants as boys does.
• Experience with toxic fruits correlate with children
confidence to determinate plants.
Children and Toxic Fruits
© 2011 EURASIA, Eurasia J. Math. Sci. & Tech. Ed.,7(2), 115-120 117
(Perceived toxicity) (Do you think that the fruit of the
plant is toxic?), each on a five-point scale (e.g., 1 = not
at all, 5 = extremely agree). Further, open-ended
questions investigated 1. children’s abilities to identify
plants and 2. visiting nature (Are you frequently going to
nature?). Correct identification was coded as 1 and
incorrect as 0. The latter question was coded
dichotomously (yes/no).
The whole Cronbach’s alpha for Willingness to eat
toxic fruits, Confidence about plant species,
Experiences and Perceived toxicity of the fruit was high
(alpha = 0.79).
RESULTS
Perception of toxic and non-toxic fruits
Multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA)
with mean scores of four dependent variables
(Willingness, Confidence, Experiences, Perceived
toxicity) and three predictors (type of fruit [toxic/nontoxic],
gender [boy/girl] and going to nature [yes/no])
was performed. The age of each child was treated as a
covariate, thus yielding tests uncontaminated by
individual differences in age (Isaac & Michael, 1972).
The effect of fruit toxicity and age significantly
influenced dependent variables (F(4,220) = 268.47 and
8.90, both p < 0.001). Gender and going to nature were
not significant predictors (F(4,220) = 0.75 and 1.76,
both p > 0.14, respectively