Now you are able to read some thoughts about Sciense 2 -course from student and teacher from Russia.
Thoughts from Alexandera and Natalya
This year, I was very lucky to take part in the project of Vodokanal Youth Environmental Center.
As a part of this project, we visited Finland, the town of Lahti.
We were lucky to talk with students from Lahti who are interested in environmental problems of water bodies. We visited some units of Helsinki University in Lahti and studied water samples from the local lake of Pikku-Vesijärvi, and also attended interesting and informative lectures and seminars.
One day, we were invited to an amazing walk through Lahti and the large lake Vesijärvi nearby. The lake and the park impressed me because they were clean, well-cared and full of silence. It was nice to walk around the park admiring the lake.
We also managed to visit the ski jumping venues built for the Winter Olympic Games in Lahti. The venues impressed us with their size, we even managed to see the skier who was flying from one of them.
Most of all I liked the central square and one of the main streets Aleksanterinkatu. One day we went to Lammi premises and took water samples from the Pääjärvi Lake and neighboring streams. Then we studied these samples under a microscope, we could observe various representatives of the lake flora and fauna and also continued studying different parameters of water samples. For example, we determined the amount of oxygen in water, temperature, clarity etc. It was really unusual and interesting. The laboratories of the biological center have modern equipment which allows scientists to conduct constant monitoring of water state in the lake.
We would like to express our gratitude to the center personnel for the tours, laboratory studies and friendly attitude to our group!
On the final day, we visited a very picturesque rock break place of glacial origin where we learned about the history of this territory formation, the peculiarities of minerals, the biodiversity of the area, walked through the woods and enjoyed fresh air.
I am happy to be a part of this project, it allowed me to meet many interesting people, exchange experiences and learn a lot of new things for myself. Lahti is a new place on the map of my world. I look forward to the arrival of the Finnish group!
Alexandera Fedotova, Student of 11A Grade, Gymnasia No. 261.
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In May 2017, two teams from Gymnasia No. 261 were among the winners of the project "Youth Awareness-Raising in the framework of the International Advanced Water Technologies Centre." The students were very happy about their victory, because they made a lot of efforts to achieve it, and the team captains Julia Shabanova and Lyubov Nelepko did a lot of organizational work.
We were looking forward to go to Finland, to Lahti. Our team specially prepared for the trip: it was necessary to think up how to present the project work which was done in St. Petersburg to the Finnish students, to practice our English in the field of environment, to prepare various games for the joint Russian-Finnish group and much more. Having coped with the assigned tasks, we started our trip by Allegro train.
It turned out to be a very interesting, educational trip rich in various activities. The students from St. Petersburg and Lahti studied together local water bodies – oxygen content in the lake water, made laboratory tests, learned about the flora and fauna of the Pääjärvi Lake located at Lammi biological station territory. Helsinki University teachers talked about the environmental problems of the region and their scientific works; they willingly answered to all students questions.
In addition to the educational component, the trip made it possible to get wonderful communication experience. Every day the students worked in pairs with Finnish students, and it was great! We discussed a variety of topics, talked about ecology and the Finnish traditions, about favorite music and special features of Russian and Finnish education, about traditional dishes and travelling. The Finnish children showed us their city, led through the streets, introduced interesting places. We visited Patina processing center and Sibeliushall, looked at the town of Lahti from the height of the ski jumping hills.
I would like to thank Saija Tillgren (the project coordinator from LADEC) for the great work to organize this trip, Petri Ojala (the teacher from Lahti school) and the personnel from Vodokanal Youth Environmental Center. The trip was prepared perfectly. We are looking forward our Finnish friends to make a return visit!
Natalya N. Sechina, Chemistry Teacher, Gymnasia No. 261
