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The authors examined students' preconceptions about environmental problems in cities, particularly that of urban disposable waste. They found that students' ideas were dominated by what they perceived, without regard to existing interactions, and that students were unaware of the fundamental role of reuse and recycling in the solution of the disposal of solid urban wastes.

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A curriculum project can be positively or negatively influenced by the environment of the classroom in which it is implemented. Analysis of the perceptions of students, teachers, and external observers has allowed us to study the influence of classroom environment in the implementation of an innovative project in science education. The main conclusions indicate that even though the global evaluation is positive, more so among teachers than among students, there are differences between the perceptions of the participants, probably due to differences in interests and needs. Moreover, in the classroom environment, the teacher and the actual dynamic and spatial organization are of great importance, and it can be difficult to maintain interest or to achieve a satisfactory evaluation on the part of those students whose academic performance is lowest. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 35: 655–671, 1998.

The preconceptions of secondary students from a small Spanish city, mainly about natural aspects, have been studied. The main characteristic of their conceptions about the urban natural environment was that it was always linked to negative aspects and was generally seen as something essentially problematic. Moreover, it seems that their knowledge of smaller living beings, of wild animals, plants and fungi, was worse than for other urban living beings. The analysis of these altemative conceptions has led the authors to propose some recommendations for curricular design and development for schools in urban environments.