A Research On Awareness of Zoos: Landscape Architecture Students

Öz Nowadays, many environmental organisations are trying to attract attention to the awareness against questioning the goals of zoos. Despite educating, the public about conservation there has been much discussion on how efficient zoos are at doing this. In this context, the main aim of this study is to measure the landscape architecture students’ knowledge about conservation and zoos; to query the main role of the zoos and to increase the awareness of the landscape architecture students on zoos who have many lectures on environmental issues during their educational period.The main the material of the research is the students who are educating at Ege University Agriculture Faculty Landscape Architecture Department. The University is located in Bornova, which is a metropolitan district of Izmir.The study was considered in four main sections, namely, conceptual framework, data collection, findings, discussion and conclusion. After an initial search of the literature, a questionnaire form was prepared. To compare the awareness level, the questionnaire was conducted to 1st, 2nd, 3th and 4th year students of Landscape Architecture of Ege University Agriculture Faculty where the period of undergraduate study is four years. “Simple Random Sampling Method” was used in the determination of the number of the students on which questionnaire would be conducted, 95 % confidence level and 0.10 sampling error was taken as a basis in the calculations. In the calculation, according to the total number of students which is 391 that the sum of 21 first grade, 18 the second grade, 20 third grade and 26 fourth grade students were used as “Population Size (N)” and the number of students on which the questionnaire would be conducted was determined as 85 at the end. It was aimed at learning each level of the students’ opinions and awareness of the subject using these questions. The literature studies on the subject and the information found from the questionnaires were analysed and it was evaluated whether the education of four years on environmental issues has changed the opinions/awareness and the approach of the students to zoos. The approaches of the social and landscape architecture students towards zoos were examined together and the necessity of zoos were questioned. Finally, recommendations to increase the awareness towards zoos were made.

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