The date of the event: 10th of March, 2016
The 10th of March in the Headquarters of the Russian Geographical Society in Moscow took place the conference of Dmitry Peskov. The Chairman of the Media Council of the Society announced about the start of the media grant contest and assumed the First All-Russian geographical dictation.
The media grant contest of the Russian Geographical Society
This year the media grant contest has been held for the sixth time already. And if in the beginning of the initiative there was given only 3 grants, this year we are intending to select much more projects. At the same time we expect assiduity from our respected journalists and are waiting for creative applications», – Dritry Sergeevich emphasized.
The Chairman of the Media Council of the Russian Geographical Society Dmitry Sergeevich Peskov
In the year of 2016 the application acceptance rules are changed. «For the first time we are emphasizing media coverage of the current projects and expeditions of the Society. There have been selected about 70 projects, from the number of which we recommended for media coverage about 16 main subjects. Besides, there is a backlash for unusual, interesting, creative offers of the media community. The applications are being received till the 1st of Aprl, the winner will be chosen by the Board of Trustees in the end of April», - the Chairman of the Media Council of the Russian Geographical Society explained.
There were provided 129 media grants in the period from 2010 to 2015 by the Russian Geographical Society.
For instance, there is planned creating of the electronic base of the data of the big caves of Russia and Near Abroad. Alexey Shelepin, the Co-chair of the Commission on speleology and karst of Moscow city branch of the Russian Geographical Society. «Speleology – is a science and sports as well. It is necessary to have special skills to get the subject of studies. Besides, the caves – is the only geographical object, where fundamental scientific discoveries are still possible», the scientist thinks. On his opinion, that area is of most interest for media coverage.
Co-chair of the Commission on speleology and karst of Moscow city branch of the Russian Geographical Society Aleksey Shelepin
One more interesting, bright project of the Russian Geographical Society is dedicated to estuaries of south of Russia studies. The manager of the project Tamara Yanina – is the chief of scientific-research laboratory of the newest sediments and Pleistocene paleogeography of the Faculty of Geography of the Lomonosov Moscow State University. Tamara sees in studying climatic and anthropogenic changes of deltas of the largest waterways of the country a great potential for the domestic tourism development besides the scientific value.
The manager of the project «The deltas of the south of Russia» Tamara Yanina
The project «Russian tops of Spitsbergen» is called up to restore historical justice. The first joint expedition of Russian and Swedish scientists for Spitsbergen was held in 1898-1902. «The general public know little of that unique research. For the five years the participants of the expedition set more than 30 signals to measure the curvature of the Earth. More than 100 years later our scientists will prove their contribution to the world science», - Michail Malakhov, the Chairman of the Ryazan regional branch of the Russian Geographical Society, the Hero of Russia, told.
The Chairman of the Ryazan regional branch of the Russian Geographical Society Michail Malakhov
On the 100th anniversary of the reserve system of Russia is being planned creating of the atlas of the state natural reserves of Russia, under the direction of Arkady Tishkov, deputy director of the Institute of Geography of the Russian Academy of Sciences. On the opinion of the scientist, the unique natural territories are waiting for their tourist. Besides, the first Russian reserve – Barguzinsky, was founded with the support of the Russian Geographical Society in January, 1917.
The results of the All-Russian Geographical dictation
Dmitry Peskov claimed that the dictation is decided to be held annually. This year it will be timed to the autumn school holidays, in order to attract the pupils of the Russian schools to the educational initiative.
«On the whole of Russia, we have only 191 «high achievers». They are those participants who scored the maximum possible number of points. However, 34 of them live in Moscow. It is not a bad result in general, however, it is not so good in the scale of our great country», - Peskov emphasized. He noted that the young participants of the dictation wrote it less successfully than the adults. Especially the Chairman of the Media Council of the Russian Geographical Society was alerted by the fact that the schoolchildren coped with dictation worst of all.
The press-conference in the Headquarters of the Society in Moscow
The dictation took place in all 85 Subjects of the Russian Federation, at 210 specially prepared sites. The action was attended by 44 365 people. Besides, 27 564 people wrote the dictation online, on the website of the Russian Geographical Society. That means that 71 929 people checked their knowledge in the sphere of geography in total.
More active than the others took part in the dictation the residents of Moscow, Tver region, Yamalo-Nenetsky autonomous district.
«I would like to appeal to the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation in order to pay their attention to that fact that is needed to devote more time to such subject as geography», - Dmitry Peskov said.
For that it is necessary to create new training and methodical complex on geography, the First Vice-President of the Russian Geographical Society Nikolay Kasimov is sure.
The First Vice-President of the Russian Geographical Society Nikolay Kasimov
«It had been very important for us, the geographers, whether the population of the country knows its geography. I am sorry for saying that, but the dictation became the reason to speak about the level of geography teaching at school and its place in life of a modern person», - he noted.
«Unfortunately, a lot of time nowadays is dedicated to the tests at schools, while the knowledge in the science of geography is more extensive and it is difficult to measure it with the help of tests. Work with maps, traveling, understanding of your country, - all that helps the up-to-date person to get to know Russia better», - Alexander Lobzhanidze, the Head of the Russian Association of Geography Teachers and the member of the Academic Council of the Russian Geographical Society, thinks. He noted as well that those who had been studying geography at school till 2011, managed to solve the tasks of the Geographical dictation much better than those who studied this subject after the changes of the school program.
The Head of the Russian Association of Geography Teachers Alexander Lobzhanidze
«We would like to turn back that number of hours for the subject studying at school, which we had before, and to leave the geography for the high school. And we also want the pupils to pass geography as the Unified State Examination after the 10th year at school», - Alexander Lobzhanidze emphasized.
Then Dmitry Peskov wished success to the future participants of the All-Russian Geographical dictation: «Each who decided to check his knowledge, is the winner already, - the Chairman of the Media-council of the Russian Geographical Society thinks. – That means that the person is being interested in the geography of his country and is willing to get to know something new».
Photo by Nikolay Razuvayev
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