No doubt, activities effectively form awareness about environmental problems, in global or in local scale. We devote our activities to different problems, considering issues from fires to garbage pollution, and from tourists press on nature to local climate changes. Activities demonstrate reasons and current status of a problem and suppose possible consequences on certain problems. In frameworks of some activities, participants propose ways of a problem solving, which is especially valuable. Here we give some examples of activities: 

"Erosion" - When seeing erosion example, the group try to explain a reason (or several reasons) of its appearing. Then naturalist could ask what do they see, and what could be a speed of the process. Group of kids (or adults) can also observe this slope and suggest what people can do to stop the process.

"Microclimate in a Valley" - Participants in mini-groups from two to four people in each take a map of the valley (an example is given on a next page), prepared by naturalist before the activity. As soon as they will become familiar with conditions of a valley, depending on wind, humidity, and temperature, each small group must “plant” trees on all points in accordance with species "requirements". After that matching, they must find the approximate location of all these points visually in nature.

"Visual Pollution" - Standing somewhere on a place with a natural landscape on a background and something “unnatural” that rapidly changes, for example, a highway with intensive traffic, or a tourists’ parking lot, naturalist asks the group to enjoy natural landscape’s beauty and to inspire by wilderness. But some participants would reasonably complain that they wouldn't do that because of this disturbing “something”! This visual impacts can be caused even by small pieces of garbage on a glade or on a river bank. It would be easily considered by participants as “visual pollution” of a natural site! Activity devoted to an analysis of a natural site like this and working with pictures with different unnatural objects and their different features (size, color, and contrast with nature).

 

We notice that students and adults who participated actively in activities like those mentioned above can become good volunteers that would be involved in different projects and actions on solving environmental problems. In a "Projects and Actions" part, we give some examples of projects we developed and implemented, and certain actions that had been organized with students and adults during last 20 years, including participants of previous activities.