Predšolski otroci spoznavajo vodne mlinčke - Konec, Špela (Š. Konec, 2015)
Bistvo diplomskega dela so vodni mlinčki. Ker pa se ti ne vrtijo kar sami od sebe, sem njihovo delovanje podrobneje pojasnila. V mojem primeru je voda tista, ki prenaša energijo na mlinčke in jih s tem poganja, zato sem se najprej osredotočila na pomen vodne energije v vsakdanjem življenju. Ker so pri mojem diplomskem delu sodelovali tudi otroci, se mi je zdelo pomembno, da predstavim njihovo razvojno stopnjo in dojemanje stvari v tej starosti. Beseda energija je za otroke zelo nedojemljiv pojem, saj ni stvaren. Poskušala sem jim ga približati na njim sprejemljiv način, in tako smo ugotovili, da mlinčki zares potrebujejo neko energijo, da se zavrtijo, saj sami od sebe ne naredijo ničesar. Da pa smo prišli do teh rezultatov, je bilo potrebnih kar nekaj vprašanj, poskusov in razlag. Otroke sem najprej posamično intervjuvala, da sem izvedela, kaj o mlinčkih in njihovem delovanju že vedo nato pa sem na podlagi dobljenih rezultatov pripravila dejavnosti, s katerimi sem otrokom približala mlinčke in jim predstavila njihovo delovanje. Po končanih dejavnostih sem jih ponovno posamično intervjuvala z istim vprašalnikom kot prej in dobila izjemne rezultate, saj so si otroci zares veliko zapomnili in se naučili veliko novega. The topic of my graduation thesis is about water mills. Because they do not spin on their own, I have explained their workings in more intricate detail. In this case water is the source of energy that powers the mills, so I described hydro energy means. Preparing activities for children was a part of my thesis, so it was important to me to present their processes of learning and developing understanding. For the children the concept of energy does not have a clear meaning, so I tried to design activities to help them understand the concept in a meaningful way and bring them to the conclusion that the mill must be powered by some kind of energy to turn, otherwise it would not be able to do anything. To come to these results, one has to ask many questions, make several experiments and provide multiple explanations. I interviewed the children separately to find out what they already knew about mills and how they work. Based on their responses I prepared activities which showed the children what mills are and how they work. Once they completed the activities I interviewed the children again using the same questions as previously. The results were astonishing, as the children really learned and remembered many new things.