Maria Kesler, a teacher at Yasinya Secondary School No. 1, arranged engaging classes for students at the “Center of Europe” within the Carpathian Biosphere Reserve (CBR) by embracing innovative methods of the New Ukrainian School. The students were engaged in an educational adventure here, reviewing common information about the lifestyles of forest animals in the Ukrainian Carpathians and digging into the significance of the reserve and why it is so important.
The colorful “Show and Tell” game was the first exercise for children, where they practiced imitating and guessing various animals. As a result, the “Animal Habitat” exercise, which included an appealing new parachute, was intended to foster teamwork while also offering information about where animals spend the winter. The activities that followed, such as “Catch a Fish from the Tisza River”, “Travel through the Carpathians”, “Environmental Traffic Lights”, and “Whose Frog Is Faster”, were both entertaining and educational. During these exercises, the students not only recognized the animals and fish that live in the Tisza River in Ukrainian, but they also learned their Hungarian names.
To cap off their experience, the students enjoyed a unique opportunity as the first visitors to an information exhibition dedicated to bats. The Institute of Ecological and Religious Studies (IERS) provided this display to the CBR in order to educate reserve visitors about these amazing nocturnal residents of the sky.
The event was held within the framework of cooperation between the Interreligious and Civil Environmental Forum of Eastern Europe (IRCEF) headed by Olexander Bokotey) and the German Nature Conservation Union (NABU Bundesverband, NABU International), project coordinators Ivan Tymofeiev (NABU), and Nataliya Kulya (IRCEF).
Informational Service of IRCEF
