In this school year, we participated in the environmental project ”Youth awareness-raising in the framework of the International Advanced Water Technologies Centre”.
The first stage was the participation in the interactive classes at the Youth Environmental Centre of St. Petersburg Vodokanal. During these classes we learned many interesting things about the Baltic Sea, its features, problems and how these problems are solved by people.
We live on the coast of the Gulf of Finland and it is very important for us.
The next stage was the seminars for teams of participants.
At the seminars we discussed how to make other schoolchildren to learn more about the Baltic Sea, how to attract their attention? How to make them treat the environment in a more responsible way?
The project was very enthralling. We had to organize an ecological “school brake” about the Baltic Sea, conducted mini-lessons, fun quizzes and environmental games and make a video about it. The most attractive thing was that we had a kind of “creative freedom”; we could create our own little “educational programme”. It was a hard work for all teams, but the result was worth it! We held lessons for kids of our schools, made performances, games and scientific experiments. It was really precious to see these pupils listening to us, watching our performances, playing games and carrying out experiments with interest!
The most warring part was the result announcement. Of course, there were a lot of another teams with different videos…We were so excited when it turned out that we were the winners! Our prize was a trip to Lahti, Finland, were we had to carry out our own research on the Vesijarvi Lake.
This trip was very informative, bright and full of impressions; it really exceeded our expectations. Here are thoughts and feelings of members of the Russian joint team about these days:
«This journey for me was a great opportunity to develop my language skills, meet new people and visit new places. During our trip we visited Lahti, entertainment center ”Heureka” and University of Helsinki, which I have always wanted to see,. I was glad for getting a chance to participate in this project, which gave me a lot of knowledge and bright impressions. And warm friendly company also made this journey unforgettable» – Anastasia, 18 y. o.
«Trip to Lahti was amazing for me. Journey to foreign country is always very interesting and valuable experience, let alone meeting new people and finding out that you have a lot of things in common despite of living in different countries.
A main experience for me was a research that we carried out in the Helsinki University. There we had to explore samples of zoo- and phytoplankton under microscope, and the best thing for me was the fact that we took them by ourselves from the Vesijarvi Lake while sailing on boat! I did similar once before in the Harakka Island, but work in the Helsinki University was even more interesting for me. I also was excited by seeing the Heureka museum in Helsinki and fabulous Sibelius Hall in Lahti. And of course I’d like to emphasize our Finnish friends’ heartfulness, friendliness and desire to work and spend time with us!
To sum up, I’d like to say that this trip was bright, interesting and undoubtedly unforgettable»! – Maria, 18 y.o.
«It was my first trip to Finland. I learned a lot about Finnish people, about their schools, culture and so on. I also learned a lot about zoo- and phytoplankton that we took from water by ourselves. We explored it in the Helsinki University; I read a lot about this place and really wanted to see it.
This trip was not just interesting, it was really informative and exciting»! – Diana, 16 y.o.
«Trip to Lahti was my first trip to Finland. Thanks to it I got a lot of experience in Collaboration with Finish students and met many interesting people. I want to say that nature is very beautiful in Finland, which I really liked», – Danya. 17 y.o.
“Trip to Lahti was the first for me. It exceeded all my expectations! I made new friends with whom I still support contact. Each day was full of new experience. I participated in scientific research of water from the lake, learned to distinguish composition of phytoplankton. I learned about a variety of devices for measurement of water temperature at different depths, collection of phytoplankton and zooplankton, surveying the chemical composition of water. It was very informative actually. Moreover, it is worth mentioning the visit to the scientific center “Heureka”. There we were able to check the physics laws in practice. More than six months passed, but memories about that trip still fresh as rhythm ”Cups”!!! – Lisa, 19 y.o.
«I’ve been in Finland for so many times, but I’ve never met Finnish students before. Probably, it was fortune that we came exactly to Lahti, where we met such cool guys, with whom we’re still in touch.
They told us about themselves and their routine school days. We visited Finnish school, Biology classes, met their teachers. It was quite noticeable, that the school was full of new technologies and it’s very interesting to study there. Moreover, we had a chance to taste local cuisine, having a lunch in the school canteen. It was delicious! Together with our good Finnish friends we visited the Vesijarvi Lake, where we had a great time. We got to the middle of the Lake for sampling of water from different depth. We were searching for zooplankton and then measured PH-level of water. These are not ordinary things to do, are those? However, it was super interesting! Having all this difficult, but exciting work done, we were singing songs, playing “cups”, dancing and, of course, visiting Finnish sauna.
It was a luck to be in the local national park, where we climbed rocks and caves, had a picnic and took lots of cool photos, because that was impossible not to do in such a beautiful place. We also visited the Helsinki State University, where we attended workshop in the laboratory, analyzing plankton, which we got from the Vesijarvi. I was impressed by the unique architectural style of the University and its new technologies, to say the truth, I even started to think about studying there in the future. What is more, we went to popular-science center “Heureka” in Helsinki. As guys said it is the most interesting and unusual museum in Finland. We met mysterious world of science and felt ourselves as a real researchers, exploring the secrets of the Universe. Numerous great interactive expositions and exhibits, which we could touch with our hands, helped us to do it. Furthermore, we were in the biggest wooden building of the country of a century, which is Sibelius Concert Hall. I, as a person interested in music, was amazed by great acoustics. Unsurprisingly, many famous musicians came there from all over the World. Besides all these, we spent lots of time with guys from Finland, they became our new friends.
All in all, science project, visiting the Finnish school, the University, the Concert Hall, the national park, spending time with new friends, singing songs, dancing and lots more were done! Such an unforgettable trip it was! Thanks to all organizers for that»! – Michael, 18 y.o.