Development of environmental education at the University of Management “TISBI”

Unesco 27 may 2021

The UNESCO World Conference on Education for Sustainable Development was held from 17 to 19 May in Germany

The World Conference brought together some 2,500 participants and aims to develop strategies for integrating education for sustainable development at all levels of education and professional training.

The conference presented the results of the study "Learn for Our Planet", which analyzed curricula and programs in almost 50 countries in all regions. The authors of the study note a lack of attention to environmental education. In this regard, UNESCO has set itself a new target: to make environmental education a core curriculum component in all countries by 2025.

At the University of Management "TISBI" environmental problems are already being actively introduced into the educational processes. For example, in the college "TISBI", which is an associated school of UNESCO, the environmental movement the "Wisdom Keepers" has been operating since 2015, actively developing the direction "Environmental protection, its exploration and care of natural objects".

Various actions aimed at maintaining cleanliness and ecology are carried out by the students of the college. First of all, this is the organization of community work days (for example, cleaning on the Lokomotiv beach as part of the All-Russian action "Clean Shores"), landscaping the park of our university on the instructions of the All-Russian quest "Lesomania", collecting batteries, plastic and waste paper. As a result, students, participating in projects related to environmental protection, get the idea that the solution of any global environmental problem is possible only with the help of all members of society. Active actions, even at the level of an educational institution, can ultimately lead to global changes, the main one of which is the gradual awareness by students of their personal responsibility for this world and the ability to change it for the better. In their apparent simplicity, such projects of UNESCO Associated Schools are not only interesting, they are vital for the whole society, especially in our country, where environmental problems have been given due attention relatively recently.

Much attention is paid to educational work with students. The student association the "Wisdom Keepers" regularly organizes lectures, seminars, public appearances and even debates for school and college students. They can highlight many problems, thereby motivate students, draw their attention to these problems and maybe even make a further plan for their solution.

For example, this year the "Wisdom Keepers" visited 73 schools and conducted an interactive lesson "Climate change in Russia" for grades 8 and 9. And during the pandemic, they tried their hand at conducting online lessons and became the winners of the All-Russian Day of Self-Government, repeating their success this year.

Another example is workshops on sorting plastic lids. Every year, the "Wisdom Keepers" tell first-year students about what types of plastic is divided into, how it is dangerous for nature, and teach students how to sort waste. These events teach students an important skill that the modern urban dweller cannot do without.

The team constantly organizes and implements all new projects. For example, bookcrossing, through which students can exchange books among themselves. On the example of this project, another one was developed - on the exchange of folders, which was included in the collection of best practices of the Association of "Green" Universities in Russia.

Various competitions, Olympiads, projects, and quests inspired the "Wisdom Keepers" to create their own web quest for ASP students from all over Russia. It has been held since 2017, the theme of the quest is changing, but the goal is the same - to draw attention to the problems of environmental conservation. This is a powerful step forward in the development of the team, because the organization of the project involves much more responsibility, but the team coped with it. Most recently, the quest "In the footsteps of climatologists", which was developed by the "Wisdom Keepers" was completed. And since this year, for the first time the "Wisdom Keepers" has launched the all-Russian quest "Agents of Recycling" for schools and kindergartens, designed to teach children to understand the types of plastic, master a special application and find out where they can donate recycled materials.

To date, the college "TISBI", due to the work of the "Wisdom Keepers", is already an ambassador of environmental education and is ready to take responsibility to lead.

Students ecology college UNESCO ASPnet