This study analyzes pre-school children’s mental representations of their idea of a garden, before and after
implementing an educational project. A total of 39 and 43 pairs of drawings (pre-post) are analyzed in children
aged four and five years, respectively, using two methods: (1) a quantitative approach, based on counting the
frequency with which elements linked to curricular scientific content appear (sun, water, earth, animals, plants
and trees), and (2) a qualitative approach, based on the degree of richness and specificity of such elements in the
drawings. Both methods provide important information on children’s interest in, and their affective-emotional
relationship with, the garden and their learning of science. The choice of curricular scientific content that is
explicitly focused on in the garden is considered important from the point of view of teaching, since such content
can condition the construction of children’s mental models of a garden, as well as scientific content in higher
educational stages.
