Nature trail "The valley of river Doubrava" connecting the village Bílek and the city Chotěboř in Železné hory, offers many possibilities on how to effectively include and use its surroundings in botanical and environmental education, which is the main goal of this diploma thesis. Theoretical part covers the characteristics of natural conditions of the nature trail territory as well as its significance and function. This part also describes, how this excursion fits in the Framework Education Programme for Elementary Education. Didactical part broadly introduces methodical plan of the excursion. This includes the verification and evaluation of the excursion. The aim of the excursion is to deepen and revise botanical knowledge and natural relations of individual locations of the nature trail with a connection to environmental education and nature preservation. The final chapter of the thesis offers teachers practical ideas on how to use the plants variety of the Doubrava Valley in botanical and environmental education. The thesis also includes my own photo documentation throughout the whole excursion. These pictures not only draw near the work when fulfilling tasks and activities to students, but also demonstrate the diversity and uniqueness of a region, where the excursion takes place.

1 ABSTRACT The thesis deals with the options of approach to teaching leaf morphology at lower secondary schools from both theoretical and emprical point of view. The empirical part is then verified on-site within the teaching process. The theoretical part is dedicated to the topic of leaf and particular aspects of the teaching process. The empirical part at first attempts to conduct a survey of the methods and organization forms of teaching applied at particular lower secondary schools within the teaching of leaf morfology. Afterwards, it analyses selected textbooks used for teaching biology. Next part describes suggested methods and organization forms of teaching applied less frequently during the education. The second goal of the thesis is to put in practice the methods and organization forms of teaching within an educational experiment. Afterwards, a didactic test is used at representative schools to verify the efficiency. At the end of the thesis, the results of the following are presented: the observation of teaching leaf morphology, the analysis of the biology textbooks content, and the didactic test. The results of the didactic test demonstrate the extent to which the skills and knowledge of the students are effected by the methods and organization forms of teaching applied within the educational...