Волонтёры на Байкале

Учитель английского языка

высшей категории

Максимова Н.И.

МОУ СОШ № 10

  1. Do the tasks.

Think of as many words as possible related to protection of nature.

What are the main causes of pollution?

State three points to be a volunteer and protect nature in your region.

2. Match the words to their meaning.

experience weak

voluntary obstacle

shaky attempt

encourage to cheer up

challenge absence of compulsion

3. What words do you need to speak about volunteers?

air pollution successful interactive

extend challenge

constantly shaky vacation

variety preparation

VOLUNTEERS

Volunteering for a year at Baikal

Environmental Wave was by far not

the easiest thing I have ever done,

but it was the most rewarding and educational. 

During my year in Irkutsk, I worked on a variety of projects at the Wave.  In the fall, I helped with preparations for a seminar on plastics recycling.  Even though my Russian language skills were still very shaky at that point, the people at Baikal Wave encouraged me and another American volunteer to prepare a short presentation on how recycling of plastics works in the United States.  The other volunteers and employees working on the seminar gave us lots of support in writing the presentation and practicing reading it before the seminar, and our information was received with great interest by the businessmen, city officials, and local teachers who attended the seminar. 

Another project that I was involved in with several other foreign volunteers was the preparation of a newsletter about Chemical Pollutants. Baikal Wave constantly receives information about Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs), mercury, and children's environmental health issues from Internet list serves.  These list serves all operate in English and the announcements often contain a great deal

of technical information or information that

is not relevant to the citizens of Irkutsk. 

We wrote summaries of the most important

information from these list serves and

worked with students of the Irkutsk State

Linguistics University to translate the

information into Russian.  Once the information

was translated, we formatted the information

into a bulletin for distribution by Baikal Wave. 

The project that I worked on was both the most challenging and the most rewarding was conducting lessons about ecology for local school children.  Throughout the school year on Saturday afternoons, I worked with two or three other volunteers to teach lessons about birds, seasons, the water cycle, air pollution, food webs and other topics of ecology.  Our lessons were open to any children who saw the announcement posters on the street, and we usually had about 10 children between the ages of 5 and 14 each week.  We showed videos from Baikal Wave's extensive

video library, played interactive

educational games, and had the children

draw the things they had learned

about.  These Saturday lessons were so

popular and successful that one of the

Russian volunteers and I decided to write

grant to enable us to extend these lessons into a small summer camp. 

For both of us, it was our first experience writing a grant application, and we were very pleased to find out that we had been awarded the money and could go forward with the planning of our "Summer Ecology School." We recruited children from the neighborhood right around the Baikal Wave office, hoping to give these children something constructive to do during their summer vacation and to keep them off the streets.  Because I had spent a year teaching environmental education at a National Park in the U.S., I did the majority of the lesson planning and gave the other volunteer teachers pointers on how to teach kids about nature IN nature.  Our two-week camp covered topics such as the energy cycle in nature, habitats (with special focus on forests and meadows), what is unique about Lake Baikal, water pollution, and what kids can do to improve the environment in their own neighborhood.  We took the children on field trips to the Irkutsk Museum of Natural History and to Lake Baikal (although the lake is only 60 km from the city, many of the children had never had the opportunity to see this unique natural wonder!). 

Living in Russia (Siberia, no less!) and doing environmental education work in a foreign language was at times extremely challenging, but the lessons I learned and the memories I brought back with me could not have been collected any other way.  There is really no other way to master the Russian language or to learn about

the current work of Russian

environmental groups other than

to live there and get involved

working with an organization like

Baikal Environmental Wave!

(Jennifer Smith, University of Michigan, USA)

4. Answer the questions.

• Where is Jennifer Smith from?
• Why did she arrive to Russia?
• What was she interested in?
• How did she take part in the work of “Baikal Wave”?
• What projects did she take part in?
• What was her first project about?
• How did she work with students of the Linguistic University?
• How did she work with school children?
• Who founded “Summer Ecology School”?
• What were the children taught about?

5. Say if the sentences are true or false.

• She helped with preparations for a seminar on plastic recycling.
• They prepared a short presentation.
• The information was received with great interest.
• They wrote summaries about children environmental health.
• They worked with students of Irkusk State Technical University.
• They conduct lessons about ecology for local schoolchildren.
• Our lessons were open only to the children of upper forms.
• They played interactive educational games.
• They founded “Summer Ecology School”.
• Our three-week camp covered topics such as the energy cycle in nature.

6. Choose the correct item.

In the … I helped with preparation for a seminar.

• fall b. summer c. winter

We prepared a short presentation on how recycling works in the … .

• the UK b. Scotland c. the USA

This list serves all operation in … .

• Spanish b. English c. Russian

The most rewarding was conducting lessons about … .

• geography b. history c. ecology

These … lessons were so popular.

• Sunday b. Saturday c. Friday

They founded “… Ecology School”.

a. Spring b. Autumn c. Summer

7. Read the beginning of the sentence and find its end

in the text.

• Our lessons were open to any children …
• We showed videos from …
• These Saturday lessons were so popular …
• It was our first experience …
• We recruited children from …
• Our two-week camp covered …
• We took the children on field

trips …

• We wrote summaries …
• Another project that …
• During my year in Irkutsk …

8. Choose the best variant.

• The first project was devoted to

a. air pollution b. plastic recycling c. forests dying

• According to the second project the bulletin informed people about

a. skin cancer b. acid rain c. health of children

• The next project was conducting lessons about

a. ecology b. economy c. garbage

9. Discuss the following questions in groups of four.

• What is being done in your place to prevent pollution of water?
• Is it important to inform people about ecological situation? Why?
• What is your idea to help this protection problem?

10. a) Write an article to a local newspaper about protection of Baikal and its nature.

b) Make a report about environmental situation in your region.

Благодарю за Внимание!