The celebration of the thirtieth anniversary of the first ecological path in Moscow in May 2011 was a notable event in the life of school № 446 in Moscow. The celebration was marked with several excursions for our guests of other schools of Moscow, ecological games and quizzes. But the history of it started long ago.
In the photo: 6”A” form before the game. The pupils of the first form on the starting point of the route.
By May 1981 the long preliminary work for creation of the eco-path in Izmaylovski Park had been completed by the group of children, enthusiasts headed by the school principal Shahurina I.I. and the biology teacher Harchenkova E.A. Creation of the first path in Moscow as” an educational classroom in the nature” was the final stage of experimental work of the team of teachers aimed for ecological formation and education of schoolchildren in the course of educational and out-of-class work. The path became a real opportunity for schoolchildren to demonstrate an active position of their social importance. The eco- path was a considerable knot of theoretical work of students like conferences, presentations, role- plays and exhibitions for the Day of Nature Protection with an ecological practice in the nature. The group of the most enthusiastic, interested and advanced students in biology draw the route of the path, designed the information boards and found much scientific, business, feature and historic information about Ismaylovski forest-park. The contents of excursions had the integrated character and compiled the themes on the importance of recreation for city dwellers, the impact of AfC on the ecosystems of the forest-park zones, protection of plants, soil and its inhabitants, birds of the city, chemical pollution of atmosphere, history of Izmaylovo, nature conditions, biotechnical actions, improvoment recreation and others.The school-leavers not only managed to complete their work but also involved a great number of students of different ages to join the school scientific society” Ecologist” and established the tradition to transfer their experience to the next generation in order to raise a decent replacement to follow their work .The scientific society goes on working successfully nowadays involving more and more school students to participate in different region and town conferences and gain the first places and prizes for their scientific work. The students arrange meetings with journalists, organize the excursions for students of other schools, meet with the school supervisors, scientists and specialists from the Academy of Pedagogical Science of the RF, guests from other towns. Many schools in Moscow and other towns have followed the experience on creation of the ecological path and the students of our school help them create them and arrange the excursions on the newly created paths.
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| In the photo: eco-games on the path | The conference at school № 446 in Moscow |
The first organizers of the path were the initiators of the fund-raising assistance to the Moscow Zoo. They also organized an activity of food collection for wintering birds and the teams of pupils competed in hanging of hand-made nests for birds in the park. And nowadays the students continue to keep their traditions on participating in all environmentally protection actions in Moscow like “Clean-up days”, ”Garbage man”, ”Save the Energy Day”, “Save The Water Day” and many others.
The eco-guides go on working enthusiastically on the Izmaylovsky path speaking in defense of nature and taking part in the affairs of its protection. The students participate in actions of planting young trees, collecting seeds for the nursery, in crafts and making bird feeders for nesting birds in the forest care and decoration of the park. Close contact with the forest park management, strengthened the chain: science-school- production.
The other remarkable page of our school life is the collaboration with the international ecological organization “LIFE-LINK-friendship”. Being in Moscow for the conference their participants visited the eco-path several times and appreciated highly the work of our school .The school was awarded the certificate for participation.
In the photo: the guests from Sweden on the path. 2006.
In conclusion, I want to stress out the importance of the work of students in “a green classroom”. Diverse and aesthetically pleasing natural landscape has a beneficial effect on the health of people .This is its great hygienic value. Calming effect of nature on the human condition is known for everybody. Green plantings reduce fatigue, increase efficiency and improve human’s health. The ionized air, comfortable microclimate, the scent of herbs and aesthetically pleasant landscapes heal people’s wellbeing. This is the background that forms the cognitive relationship of our pupils towards nature.
According to Goethe, nature is “the only book contents of which have the same importance on all its pages“. Reading “a book of nature” is a fascinating pastime for young biologists and research professionals to solve social and environmental problems. The main objective of the path organization was scientifically-practical activities of pupils in nature for formation of inculcation of love to all living things in them, creation of valuable orientations, development of ecological ethics and requirement for protection of nature from negative influence of a human on it. The path as” a green classroom” has been serving for these tasks successfully for thirty years and other teachers of ecology ( Timofeeva O.U.,Gallactionova T.U., Ivanova L.D.- the vice principal) continue their important work on it.
The plan of ecological route and its objects
The Length of the route is about 1- km.
There are the following boards on the route containing the information on
- The soil and its inhabitants
- Birches
- Natural condition
- History of Izmaylovo
- Aptecarski garden
- Larches
- The river flood plain
- The river Serebryanka
- Ducks and crows
- City birds
- Chemical pollution
- Forest plant
- Ponds
- Improvement recreation
- Biotechnical actions
- Protection of nature (historical information)
- Old larch trees; a forest road
- About noise disturbance factor
- Amur velvet plant
- Protection of plants
- Value of green spaces
- The value of nature
An example of the lecture prepared by pupils
The history of Ismaylovo is extremely interesting. The village of Ismaylovo , a former possession of Dukes of the Izmaylovs, since the times of Ivan The Terrible became the estate of Dukes of Romanovs. In the second part of the 17-th century after the death of the Duke Romanov N.I. according to the law it became a part of the palace property. Tsar Aleksey Mikhaylovich devoted much of his time to Ismaylovo and since1663 he began to develop a new management there. The Ismaylovo estate occupied a vast territory including various outbuildings, gardens, woods, meadows, fields and ponds of the sovereign’s court as well. The management of the huge estate needed workers and in 1663 peasants from other sovereign’s estate were settled for «eternal habitation» in a wasteland of the estate.
The Ismaylovo property had the most various industries. The best developed branches were husbandry, gardening, production of beer, cattle breeding and besides there were mills, honey making, flax weaving. The place which once was used for beekeeping now is used also for apiaries traditionally. There was Aptekarskiy orchard also. At the times of Aleksey Mikhaylovich the menagerie was arranged in Ismaylovo. There were kept elms, wild boars, wolves, bears, foxes, porcupines, the Siberian and American deer. According to the evidence of foreigners there lions, tigers, leopards, lynxes and sables lived. The Poultry yard was a part of menagerie where king swans, Chinese guess, peacocks, English hens, pheasants and other rare species of birds lived.
In the photo: a new apiary is just on the place of the old one.