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The “naturalistic” approach in teaching biology and educating children was used in the first years of the Soviet period. “The Biostation for young naturalists” was founded in Moscow in 1918 and young naturalist movement started at the same time. Such educators as B.V.Vsesvyatsky and P.P.Smolin stood at the roots of it. They could unite an inborn children’s aspiration for the study of nature and scientists’ possibilities in investigating nature. One of the founders of the Russian young naturalist movement and the “author” of the naturalistic approach in the Russian out-of-school education P.P.Smolin attributed the success of the young naturalist movement by a close contact of children with nature and an investigative approach in their studies of nature. The first Russian young naturalist groups were naturalistic in the full meaning of the word – children lived, studied in nature (lessons in the woods), and carried out research work in the woods on the specially arranged areas (camps). The first experience of combining studies and original research work in nature proved to be successful and began to extend fast throughout the country.

In the 1930s the naturalistic approach was changed into the “socialistic” one, i.e. it was necessary to develop agriculture, “to overtake and leave somebody or something behind”. The young naturalist movement was combined with the pioneer movement and had lost its unique character for many years. Only few enthusiasts kept developing naturalistic approach. They founded a network of “naturalistic” groups of children in Moscow that continue to exist up to nowadays. They are “The Club of Young Zoo-Friends” and “The Biology Club”. Second one was a branch of All-Russian Society for Nature Preservation and later and up to now – of the State Darwin Museum. “The Biology Club” is also a branch of the Moscow Society of Nature Investigators. After the Second World War the young naturalist movement spread all over the country – the “stations for young naturalists” began to appear everywhere . It’s a pity but they were characterized by an “agricultural” approach though there had been a tendency to increasing the number of groups of the naturalistic approach since 1970s.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s there appeared a real boom of the naturalistic approach that coincided with the disappearing of the agricultural one. By that time the social idea of man’s place and role in nature had changed greatly – the appeal for conquering nature had been replaced by one for preserving it. The regeneration of the roots of the environmental education coincided with the “changing course” of the whole country and falling into an economic decay – all these events were reflected in shattering the establishments of the additional education. At the same time there appeared an important problem of looking for ways of attracting young generation’s attention to investigating and preserving the Nature.
The idea was not a simple one to implement. First, for many years of the pioneer domination in the young naturalist movement the educational culture itself and the ways of the environmental education of children had been lost. Second, young biology teacher succeeded naturalistic biologists of the “old school”. These new educators studied biology and geography only through books, they didn’t know real nature and some of them never took part in the field work (owing to various circumstances). The third reason for this was a rapid development of ecological science, nature-preservation methods and monitoring research. Research methods had made a great progress but almost nobody tried to put them into the educational practice. Fourth, the early 1990s were marked by a great deal of foreign influence in the environmental education that was showered on “unprepared heads” of Russian environment teachers. An insufficient development of a “naturalistic” trend in the Russian environmental education can finally be explained by these factors. The last reason had played a very important role in the present correlation of trends of the environmental education.

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Time to choose: creation or destruction…

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The “school (theoretical) ecology trend of the environmental education” is mainly based on studying general environment objective laws and global environmental problems. Textbooks that educators use in their teaching are written in a very “dull” and “global” manner.

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The analysis of the environmental education in Russian schools for the last 10 years helps to come to the conclusion that the environmental education includes at least 5 trends: “school (theoretical) ecology“, “technical (industrial) ecology“, “socio-political ecology“, “playing ecology“, ‘field ecology“. The present classification is rather symbolic and thus we may speak of different ecology, using these word-combinations only in quotation marks and bearing in mind that we don’t speak of ecology as a whole but only of some trends of the environmental education. All these trends are characterized by different approaches to the education of children, a quite different substance forms of work and direct ways of communication with children. Moreover, each of these trends has got its own authors, its own means of communication and its own audience.

The “school (theoretical) ecology trend of the environmental education” is mainly based on studying general environment objective laws and global environmental problems. Textbooks that educators use in their teaching are written in a very “dull” and “global” manner.

The “technical” trend in the environment education is based on studying the results of the industrial influence on the environment and the ways of struggle with pollution by various technical means. As a part of professional education this sphere is certainly very important but is not the main one in forming a correct attitude of a person to the Nature.

The “sociopolitical” ecology is nature preservation through the adoption of “Reduce-Reuse-Recycle” philosophy, and its implementation in industry and everyday life. This trend though spreading quickly throughout the country is inefficient because it causes fear for the future and a social tensions as a result of searching for scapegoats. Positive aspect  sociopolitical ecology is that many people start to support the idea of preserving nature and thus can attract the attention of “powerful people of the world” to the ecological problems.

The “playing” trend in education is something new for our country and is spreading fast among educators (especially in schools). Any game including an ecological one is a fine occupation for children that aids to their maturity and an easy way of acquiring useful knowledge for adults. A foreign influence in this field contributes to an active development of the “playing” ecology in our country as our foreign colleagues have gained an enormous experience for many years and it is deprived of national peculiarities and need only a translation.

Nowadays the sphere of the “field” ecology turned out to be a less developed and less simple form of the environmental education in Russia. And it is quite evident: the teachers who have got a special natural sciences education are engaged in the sphere of the “school” ecology. The former engineers and educators of technical colleges are engaged in the “technical” ecology. Everybody can be engaged in the “socio-political” and “playing” ecology including former active members of youth communist movement. But everything mentioned above is insufficient for a “field” ecology educator. The person must combine the qualities of a scientist, an outdoor guide and an entrepreneur to successfully teach “field” ecology.

by Alexander S. Bogolubov

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Environmental and Housing Movements: Grassroots Experience in Hungary, Russia and Estonia

The vast empty plains of the Russian steppe may seem inhospitable to many, but for some it offers the chance to return to a simple life and escape from today’s pressures and problems. Sergey Boriso…
Rodnoe – Eco-village of Kin’s domains
Recently in Russia there has been an increase in the number of people who, preferring life in nature to the hustle and bustle of the city, have moved to Eco-villages…and are creating “Kin’s domains.” They have given up the use of fertilizers, heavy agricultural machines, and grow all their food themselves.

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How Permaculture Water Harvesting Works? Geoff Lawton founding Director of the Permaculture Research Institute talks about Permaculture Water Harvesting techniques, swales and sillways. PERMACULTURE: A Designers’ Manual

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see more info on seal hunt ban in Russia

Russia looks to boost energy efficiency

Baltic pipeline fuels ecology row

Russian ministry takes Ecology seriously

Russia is the biggest country in the world and the wealthiest when it comes to natural resources. Developing these resources are at the heart of the Russian economy. But is the development sustainable? According to governmetn data, 40 million people in this country live in unfavourable environmental conditions. What are the authorities doing to improve the situation? To tell us more is the Minister of Natural Resources and Ecology, Yury Trutnev.

Belarusian Energy and Ecology Congress …

Belarusian Energy and Ecology Congress says Belarus will upgrade all the largest power stations by 2010. Leading enterprises of Belarus, visitors from Russia and Baltic States discuss energy security

Life in Russian Eco-village

As the world wakes up to the affects of climate change, more and more Russians are ditching city life for some fresh country air. They are taking the usual ‘dacha’ living one step further by living cities…

Technorati Tags: Baby Seal, Baltic States, Belarusian, Climate Change, Dacha, Eco News from Russia, Eco Village, Ecology, Energy Efficiency, Energy Security, Environmental Conditions, Hunt Ban, Minister Of Natural Resources, News From Russia, News Russia, Rt News, Russia, Russia Russia, Russian Economy, Russian Ministry, Russians, Seal Hunt, Security Life, Social justice, Survival, World Ecology

1. Authenticity before marketing. Have personality. Build community.
Those nonprofits who are most successful at utilizing social networking Web sites like Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace know from trial, error, and experience that a “marketing and development approach” on social networking sites does not work. Simply put, it comes across as lame. Traditional marketing and development content is perfectly fine for your Web site and e-mail newsletters, but Web 2.0 is much more about having personality, inspiring conversation, and building online community. Nowhere is this more true than on Twitter. Relax, experiment, let go a bit… find your voice. Be authentic.

2. Be nice. Be thankful. Reply and Retweet!
Twitter functions much like Karma. The nicer you are to people in the Twitterverse, they nicer they are to you in return. The more you ReTweet (RT) others, the more they will RT your Tweets in return. And whether it’s Twitter, MySpace, Facebook or YouTube, if someone does something nice for you in the public commons of Web 2.0, it is always a good practice to send them a message of “Thanks… much appreciated!”. Kindness and appreciation will make you stand out from the others and makes an excellent impression.

3. Follow everyone who follows you.
This is a hard one for a lot of nonprofits. They want to keep their “Home” view clutter free and controlled and only follow a select few. Honestly, they only want to follow those whose Tweets that they are really interested in reading. But I say this often… “This time it is not about you, it is about them.” Web 1.0 communications is all about us and our messaging i.e, your Web site and e-mail newsletter. Web 2.0 is all about your supporters and their messaging. It’s better to create a personal Twitter profile in order to only follow those select few you are interested in reading, but if you are going out on Twitter behind your organization’s logo a.k.a. avatar, it is a mistake to not follow all your followers in return. Why?

1. Twitter is about conversation. You can’t have a conversation on Twitter if you are not following your followers. It is a one-sided relationship.
2. They can’t message you on Twitter if you are not following them.
3. It’s a snub. Let’s face it… people on Twitter want to be followed. That’s what the site is about! How can you build community on Twitter if you won’t even participate with your followers?

Have a look around Twitter… you will see the most successful, ReTweeted nonprofits follow everyone who follows them.

4. Use “Favorites” to organize the chaos and feature your most important Tweets!
So, if you are going to follow everyone who follows your organization (which is hopefully thousands of people) then “favorite” Tweets by those who you are most interested in reading and favorite your most important Tweets. The favorites option on Twitter is a simple, excellent tool to help you organize the chaos.

5. Don’t tweet about your coffee (unless it is fair trade), the weather, or how tired you are. Provide value to your followers, not chit-chat!
It’s one thing to chit-chat about the weather, your headache, or how you need coffee to wake up in the morning on your personal profile on Twitter, but it’s quite another if you are active on the Twitterverse via your organizational profile. The messages you send reflect upon your organization. Example of what not to Tweet: “Such-and-such Nonprofit got stuck in traffic this morning. Ugh! I need coffee and a vacation… and I think I am getting a headache!” No one likes a whiner and this just makes it sound like Such-and-Such Nonprofit is not a fun place to work. People follow you because they want good content from your organization on subjects relevant to your mission. Make sure your Tweets provide value and are Re-Tweetable.

6. Don’t only Tweet your own content.
Twitter is a news source. Participate in news. Tweet articles or blog posts by your favorite newspapers, bloggers, or other nonprofits (yes… other nonprofits! Find allies, build relationships). If it is a good read or a good resource, it reflects well upon your organization that you Tweeted it. There is also a good chance you might get ReTweeted if the article is deemed timely and worthy by the Twitterverse.

7. Send messages, but not via auto-responders.
There are tools out there that will automatically message your new followers. Don’t use them. It’s Spam. It’s not authentic. It’s not human. It’s lazy marketing. I think this cartoon sums up auto-responders perfectly.

8. Don’t worry about those that “unfollow” you.
It’s easy to feel slighted when someone stops following you. What did I say? Did I do something wrong? Let it go. Who knows why they followed you in the first place. Give it no more than 3 seconds thought and then move on.

9. Limit your Tweets to 5 per day, and no more than 6!
I have been polling on Twitter and the Twitterverse has revealed that less is more when it comes to Tweeting. See poll results.

10. Twitter is what you make of it. You get out of Twitter what you put into it. This is the same of all Web 2.0 social networking sites.
Twitter is a fun, valuable tool that can drive significant traffic to your Web site (start watching your Web site referral logs!) and help build and strengthen your brand in the online world of Web 2.0, but just like Facebook and MySpace, Twitter requires time and energy to produce results. You get out of it what you put into it. If you do one Tweet a week, you will get the results of one Tweet. But if you Tweet 4 times daily Monday through Friday… you will get the results of 20 Tweets weekly.

Again, it’s about community building around your mission and programs. Just having profile on Twitter (or MySpace, or Facebook) does not magically produce any results. You have to work these profiles. Find the person on your staff who loves Web 2.0 and enjoys working the sites and/or find a marketing/pr intern from your local university that needs to do a senior project! If they are getting college credit, then you know they have to stay around for at least a semester.

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