The project on environmental education of students of Irkutsk school “Gymnasium № 1” has been completed. It was implemented by students of the 3rd year of the Faculty of Foreign Languages of ISU Institute of Philology, Foreign Languages and Media Communication and became one of the events held within the framework of the Year of Mentor and Teacher.

The project continued for three months, its goal was not only the environmental education of school students, but also the implementation of the principle of theory and practice connection in teaching activities for university students. All this time, ISU students acted as mentors and full-fledged participants in the implementation of environmental social projects: they held homeroom meetings, extracurricular activities – contests, quizzes, quests, games “Explore! Investigate! Inform!”, workshops on plastic recycling and upcycling. Educational conversations were also held, not only with schoolchildren, but also with their parents: parents’ meetings and classes within the framework of the work of the “Responsible Parenting” club.

Elena Nikitina, Candidate of Pedagogical Sciences, Associate Professor of the Pedagogy Department of ISU Pedagogical Institute:

“Participation in social projects is an effective way of socialization and civic education of students, an opportunity to form the right values not in theory, but in practice. The social project activities are insuring the personal growth of all its participants: everyone can not only demonstrate their knowledge, but also show personal qualities, general erudition, creativity, and teamwork skills. It should be noted that environmental education is an integral part of the ecological worldview and ecological culture formation, of understanding the importance of preserving the environment for future generations.

The main socially significant tasks of the project activity were: formation of social competencies among all participants; introduction to various social processes, including methods of immersion in a situation, business games, creative competition, brainstorming, etc.; acquisition of communicative and practical skills of working in an intellectual creative age-diverse team; ability to see the problem, to analyze it from the point of view of the current legal norms in the education system.”

Kristina Shorstova, student:

“The importance of environmental education and systematic education in this area is beyond any doubt. Being a responsible and progressive person means taking care not only of one's own well-being, but also making a personal contribution to the preservation of the environment, as well as constantly enrich your knowledge on how to do it more effectively, efficiently and successfully. We, future teachers, understand that the process of child formation is complex and, from the system analysis point of view, it should be considered as a complex organizational system, one of the elements of which is the environmental education of children and adolescents, therefore, the inclusion of children in the system of respect for nature is a priority task.”

Vlada Sokol, a student:

“We had the opportunity to acquire skill of communication with participants in pedagogical sphere, try our hand at managing school projects, plunge into the atmosphere of a modern school with its issues, tasks, situations, once again make sure that we made a correct choice in our future profession, see potential gaps in our own training and outline ways to eliminate them. The more students have similar situations related to their work at school, interaction with teachers and students, the more effective our professional training will be.”

These events were held in an atmosphere of creativity and mutual understanding. Schoolchildren and students shared ideas related to ecology, animal welfare and environmental protection. Taking care of nature is everyone's responsibility.