The 14th of November, 2016 there took place the Media Club meeting at the Headquarters of the Russian Geographical Society. The Chairman of the Media-Council of the Society Dmitry Peskov took part in it. Besides, the speakers at the event were the Deputy Minister of Education and Science of the Russian Federation Natalia Tretyak and the dean of the Faculty of geography of the Lomonosov Moscow State University Sergey Dobrolubov.
Within the frames of informal communication over a cup of tea the journalists of leading Russian mass media got to know about the three scale projects of the Russian Geographical Society - Congress of geography teachers, All-Russian geographical dictation and the Award of the Russian Geographical Society.
«Traditionally the Russian Geographical Society spends the biggest part of its grants to the projects, which are anyway connected with geographical education, with popularization of geography» - Dmitry Peskov said.
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Congress of geography teachers - 2016
The All-Russian Congress of geography teachers, which took place from the 2nd to the 3rd of November at the Lomonosov Moscow State University, became one of the key events of this year in the field of geographical education and awareness. More than 550 people from all the country took part in it: the teachers, university professors, methodologists, leading scientists, geographers, heads of educational institutions.
«Generally, the participants of the Congress agreed on one thing: as to school education, the situation needs to be corrected, there are less and less teachers, the number of hours should be increased gradually nevertheless, and of course taking into account comprehensiveness and complexity of modern programs. Unfortunately, tiny percentage of graduates pass the state examination in geography, that makes about 2%», - Peskov emphasized.
Under the instruction of the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Russian Geographical Society, the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin, there was worked out the concept pf development of the geographical education. The representatives of the Russian Geographical Society and the Ministry of Education became the authors of it. The main purpose of the document is elimination of existing shortcomings in the system of geographical education and its adaptation to the demands of modern society. The work of the Congress, which included 14 thematic round tables, was dedicated to the final discussing of the project of the Concept exactly.
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«We have been speaking a lot about patriotism. Geography must rank with national history and the world history, with the Russian language in the formation of feelings, which we call love to the motherland», - the Chairman of the Media-Council of the Russian Geographical Society emphasized.
The Deputy Minister of Education and Science of the Russian Federation Natalia Tretyak told about the perspectives of the further work on the Concept.
«To form the feelings of love and respect for your Motherland, in fact, would you agree that is it very difficult to love that you do not know well and do not understand, and geography knowledge of your country, especially of those nations, which inhabit our multinational, huge, the biggest country in the world, knowledge of its natural resources, respect for this country, surely, forms love to your homeland as well. And educational aspect of such subject as geography, was discussed by our colleagues at the Congress as well. The new concept will certainly form the basis for the creation of a new series of textbooks on geography», - Natalia Vladimirovna noted.
The Geographical dictation 2016
The 20th of November there will take place the All-Russian Geographical Dictation. The first Geographical dictation was held last year, and the total number of those who had written it made 70 000 people at 200 sets all around Russia, and in the Internet as well.
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«There have been registered over 1500 thousand sets, that is almost 8 times bigger, that is to say that the coverage of the Geographical dictation will be increased, - Dmitry Sergeevich noted. – The Dictation can be written in all the subjects of the Russian Federation. That can be traditionally done online and offline, and the main thing that you can come to the set in your region and do it in real time, internally».
The Deputy Executive Director of the Russian Geographical Society for the Project and Information activities Ilya Gurov told about the sets of this year.
«This year we have simplified all the rules for the sets, in order for any institution could organize the dictation. We have three formats: we can show a video with questions, or just a presentation, if there are problems with the Internet, or it there is no possibility to use any electronic means, the options with questions are just being handed in to each participant».
There are some leaders by the number of the sites organized, they are the following: Yakutia, Bashkortostan, Samara region. Ilya Gurov also noted, that tomorrow, the 15th of November, the registration of regional sets is over.
The participant of the first Geographical dictation Svetlana Alexandrovna Sotkina, the Head of the Department of Geography of Nizhny Novgorod Pedagogical University, having specially come to Moscow Headquarters of the Russian Geographical Society from Nizhny Novgorod, told about the dictation. She noted that the first Geographical dictation aroused great interest in Nizhny Novgorod.
«I think it is needed to be said that was Sunday and people were coming to the dictation whole families. The smallest participant of the dictation was 10 years last year, and the oldest one was 83».
One of the authors of tasks for the Geographical dictation 2016 is the Associate Professor of the Department of Cartography and Geoinformatics of the Faculty of Geography of the Lomonosov Moscow State University, Candidate of Geographical Sciences Anna Prasolova, told what way the questions of the year of 2016 will look like.
The Dictation includes 30 tasks, which are roughly divided into three blocks. The first one consists of the questions on knowledge of geographic concepts and terms; the second one is aimed at the check of knowledge of the location of geographic features on the map; the third one offers to recognize geographical object for the entries by travelers and excerpts from works of art.
One of the main principles of the action is anonymity. It is not obligatorily specify your name on the forms of tasks and responses. The participants will be asked to specify only their age, occupation, relation to geography (for instance, a student or profile high school teacher) and some other data. This information is necessary for evaluating and for the analysis of the level of geographical knowledge of inhabitants of our country.
There were the pupils of the Suvorov Military School Vladislav Klepikov and Dmitry Chervyakov, pupils of the boarding school of Moscow Cadet Corps of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation Elizaveta Velichko, Dana Didyk and Anastasia Kamaldinova, who took part in scale educational action of the Russian Geographical Society last year. The children told how they were writing the dictation last year and that they will write it with their friends this year for sure.
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Not only Russian people, but foreign guests were checking their geographical knowledge as well. One of them is Pierre Brochet, a TV-presenter of the «Kultura» («The Culture») channel, who has been living in Russia for more than 20 years.
«I have traveled through to Russia from A to Z, and, first of all, geography indeed is a pleasure, - Brochet noted. – And as I found out at the dictation, I just do not know a lot, and some of my answers were wrong. But that gave me a new a new impetus for studying the geography of Russia».
The Award of the Russian Geographical Society 2016
One more scale project of the Society is the Award of the Russian Geographical Society. The acceptance of the applications on competition awards was held from the 1st of July to the 30th of September. The applications were given by 394 applicants in 4 nominations. Anyone who wanted could choose the project he/she liked with the help of online voting in the fifth nomination named «Public acceptance». The geography of the participants is as wide as possible – 60 regions of Russia and a number of foreign countries, from Brazil to Belarus.
The names of the laureates of the Award will be known quite soon. Besides, there will be announced the names of the winners of the All-Russian Photo Competition «The Most beautiful country» at the ceremony as well.
The Chairman of the Media-Council of the Russian Geographical Society touched on the other projects in the field of geographical education and awareness as well.
That is the film series «The Geography lessons», which are available for viewing on the video portal of the Russian Geographical Society, and the line of school wall maps, the electronic versions of which can be used by the teachers on the Geoportal of the Society.
Dmitry Sergeevich told about the new format of cooperation of the Russian Geographical Society with indifferent boys and girls – the Youth club of the Russian Geographical Society as well. Any school, university, local history section can open a Club branch at their place, getting the methodical materials, films, collections, electronic books and maps. The best members of the youth clubs will have an opportunity to get to the profile changes of the Russian Geographical Society in the All-Russian children`s centers such as: «Artek», «Orlyanok», «Ocean», and to take part in the volunteers expeditions of the Society.
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