This study is about pupils’ perception and interest in the chemistry topic and their understanding of the content of the lessons. This is made by studying pupils’ understanding and motivation based on two lessons in chemistry, a theoretical lesson and a practical lesson. The pupils’ get more curious about the subject of chemistry and environment when working with NTA-box. Eight pupils divided into two groups with four in each, have been interviewed in this study. The pupils in the first group have read a factual text in the science book about red cabbage juice and answered some questions about it. The second group have examined the chemical properties of some substances with the help of red-cabbage juice. The results from the pupil’s answers has shown that motivation of second group was higher, because most pupils thought that laboratory work is fun and they have learned a lot from the studies. However, the pupils who have read the book have been able to understand the text and explain their answers in a clear way.