CLASSROOM IN THE WILD NATURE OF VODLOZERO: EXPERIENCE OF ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION

In the process of new personal consciousness formation it is very important to understand the necessity of development of new public conception of the environment as a common sphere of society and nature, which means understanding the significance of sustainable development of nature and society. Extracurricular environmental education implemented in the “Vodlozersky” National park helps to promote environmental knowledge of native region and fosters development of knowledge and skills for living and working in the environment. The content of educational programmes was divided into separate topics: “Avi-fauna of Vedlozero islands”, “Predators on the swamp”, “Vodlozero lichens”, “Mushroom hunting”, “Green pharmacy” and others. As an example, we suggest one of the lessons devoted to “Avifauna of Velikostrov Island” from the topic “Avifauna of Vedlozero islands”. It took much time for schoolchildren to get the skills in birds' identification. Teachers and schoolchildren analyzed everything they saw and heard, made conclusions, wrote down their observations. As a result of fieldwork the expedition participants have managed to learn to recognize different kinds of birds in the nature of the National park. Schoolchildren expressed special interest while getting to know the life of invertebrates of the water reservoir: “Microcosmos in a drop of water”. The integrative approach lied in combination of methods of Japanese paper art of Origami used to represent generalized image of a bird. With the help of natural materials such as dry grass, flowers, branches, soil, moss, stones, etc. schoolchildren constructed the models of biocenosis.