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E-mail for Environmental Education in Samara

Region: Russia
Author: The Center for Environmental Education
Consortium Member: Sacred EArth Network (SEN)
Status: Needs Funding Budget: $1078 Collected: $0 Needs: $1078
Goal: To provide The Center for Environmental Education in Samara with a computer for e-mail. This will enable it to distribute its environmental education materials and also to maintain regional and international contacts.
Comment: Samara is located in the Volga River region of southern Russia. This Center is an active and established institution which needs better communications technology.

Our group is requesting a complete E-mail station, which includes a computer, modem and printer.

Project Areas:
Environmental education, incorporating environmental education into school and extracurricular organizations, environmental awareness, distribution of environmental information.

Current/Recent Projects:
A number of different types of activity for developing the field of environmental education in the city and oblast have been developed by our Center for Environmental Education; in particular, a "Comprehensive Program for the Development of a System of Environmental Education and Child-rearing in the Samarskaya Oblast" region has been proposed.

Our Center is continuously working to collect eco-educational information and to bring together Russia-wide and international contacts in this area. In 1994 the Center joined the Association for Environmental Education (ASEKO) and participated in seminars given by that organization on the original eco-educational programs, such as "The World of Water" for upperclass students and "The Playful Environment" for younger classes, an international seminar on the American eco-educational program "A Feeling of Wonder", as well as the seminar "The Colorful Environment". Participation in similar types of eco-educational work and exchange of experience has enabled us to set up a methodically arranged material and bibliographic base for conducting specific eco-instructional seminars.

We have also participated in environmental education schools run by the Russian State Youth Library. The Golubka Seminar of March, 1994 on environmental leadership was very useful to the Center, as well. This has helped us not only to find new sources of eco-instructional materials and acquire new nontraditional forms of working with children and teachers, but also to establish new fruitful contacts. We have established contacts with the Russian Ministry of the Environment, the International Environmental University, the environmental laboratory of the school's Scientific-Research Institute, etc.

Our Center has been continuously coordinating and organizing eco-instructional field-work in the Samarskaya Oblast with the Volga Region's Historical-Eco-Cultural Association (IEKA). We have also disseminated available eco-educational literature and visual aids; particular materials have been distributed in small extracts: the program "Green Planet" and "A Feeling of Wonder"; a pamphlet for methodically developing games and festivals is now in press.

Within the framework of the International Environmental Safety Month that was conducted in the city of Samara, our Center became the initiator and organizer for contests conducted among schools in the city for the best environmental artistic expression and the best environmental action.

Four game-festivals with original scenarios were conducted with school students in the oblast, with financial support from the Samara Youth Station: "The Effect of Our Actions" for upperclass students and "The Forest Elf's Riddles" for middle-school classes.

Our Center for Environmental Education has also conducted an eco-educational school on the program "A Feeling of Wonder" for teachers in the city (together with the youth center) and seminars on "The Colorful Environment" in three of the city's schools.

Work on organizing a regional and oblast Olympiad was conducted in the 1994/95 academic year jointly with the School Board of the oblast administration. In October 1994, through the direct leadership of the Center, several students from the Samarskaya Oblast were able to participate in the First Volga-Region Student Environmental Conference (in the city of Kazan), where they won prizes.

The Center for Environmental Education has also conducted sociological and socio-psychological research (May and October-November 1994) on the environmental culture of school students and the state of environmental education in the Samarskaya Oblast.

The other environmental organizations which would have access to E-mail should our group be granted equipment are: The Samarskaya Oblast Youth Union, the Samarskaya Oblast Youth Station, the Sovyetsk, Kirovsk, and Industrial Centers for Extracurricular Work, and interested schools in the city and oblast.

We have the resources for payment of telephone and computer network connection services.

Computer equipment received would be used for opening an e-mail station and working on e-mail with the aim of collecting information on eco-instructional activities in the CIS and abroad, purchasing pre-developed materials and exchanging experiences, and even developing partnership agreements.

About the Sacred Earth Network's equipment program: The Sacred Earth Network (SEN) provides middle-ground equipment (not top-of-the-line, but reliable equipment). Recipients sign a 2 year contract committing themselves to using the granted equipment to communicate for their environmentally oriented work.

After delivering the equipment, training recipients on computer and E-mail use, and making sure groups open e-mail accounts, SEN's Moscow technical and project staff provide considerable post hook-up consultation to ensure that participants become reliable e-mail users.

SEN's Moscow staff will provide training and follow-up consultation for any environmental group granted equipment by Virtual Foundation donors.

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