On June 29, the young people together with teachers of TRENCSY made an initial excursion to the river of their hometown – Uzh. The city of Uzhhorod is famous for its wonderful alleys. Now the students had the opportunity to get acquainted with one more of the alleys, which consists of amazing trees – pagoda tree. Pagoda tree has extremely strong timber, which is valued in the woodworking industry. Olga Velychkanych, Head of the department of biology as well as Research and Experimental work, told the young people interesting facts about the pagoda tree. Timber also has poisonous properties along with medicinal properties. She drew attention to its sprawling crown and strong root system. It’s a great place to hide when it’s hot.
The next item for the study was Sosnowsky’s hogweed. Oksana Strychko, a methodologist at the department of ecology and nature conservation, talked about its properties. She drew attention to its dissemination and the burns that this plant causes. The children saw the large thickets of hogweed on the banks of rivers and roadsides and learned that it was specially imported to Ukraine as a fodder crop for cattle. However, as it turned out later, the milk acquired a bitter taste, so they stopped feeding it to the animals. Unfortunately, it’s not possible to destroy the hogweed even today. The children also learned that along the banks of the river you could find other plants, such as the Himalayan balsam and the perennial sunflower. An exciting feature of the Himalayan balsam is that it actively disperses the seeds, which fly in all directions when the box is opened.
With the aim of consolidating the knowledge acquired by the young students during educational field practice and excursions, in particular, the young researchers performed the tasks of didactic games, namely: “Identify the plant by the leaf”, “Birds of Ukraine”, “Where is the fruit” and others. At the end of the excursion, the young people got a pleasant surprise – swimming in the river. It was great, especially in this heat. Analyzing the course of education and field practice, youth students and teachers came to the conclusion that young environmentalists managed to deepen and expand the knowledge acquired in classes, learn to conduct observations in nature, collect and process the information received after the class, and join nature conservation activities.
The event was held as part of the cooperation of the Interreligious and environmental civil forum of Eastern Europe (IRCEF) (head by Alexander Bokotey) with the German Nature Conservation Union (NABU Bundesverband NABU International ), project coordinators Ivan Tymofeiev (NABU), Nataliya Kulya (IRCEF).
Informational Service of IRCEF