The law on “Environmental education” of RA aims at creating the unified national system of an environmental education by providing continued environmental trainings from pre-school level to wider population. The most important part of this unified system is the environmental trainings at schools, which should be directed to the formulation of environmental consciousness and behavior of younger generation.
The main goal of trainings at schools in SPA’s nearby communities was to raise children’s environmental knowledge, because SPA has an important role in the nature protection; they contribute to the reduction of manmade impacts on the environment, ensure the eco-balance, preserve the biological and landscape diversity.
Trainings were held by the National Ozone Unit and respective experts on May 12-13, 2016, instead of initially planned May 4-5. The dates were postponed due to weather conditions.
The mission was to develop the environmental knowledge and to formulate the eco-consciousness which will help children to protect the ozone layer, and to protect themselves from the harmful UV radiation, to conserve the endemic and rare species of plants and animals, as well as to adhere to the protection regimes of SPA’s.
The trainings covered such topics as the problem of ozone layer and protection from the UV radiation, ozone and water resources, ozone and climate change, ozone and biodiversity. The trainings were delivered in “plain air” mode; little rugs were provided to children, so they can sit on the grass and feel closer to nature during the classes and question-answer sessions. Informational notebooks on the ozone layer and UV protection and some snacks were distributed to children at the end of the training.
More than 314 schoolchildren attended the training: 130 children from N2 and N3 schools of “Sevan” National Park’s nearby communities and basic school of Karmir community, 123 children from Hrazdan’s N11 basic school after William Saroyan, 90 children from N2, N4 and N 6 schools of “Dilijan” National Park’s nearby communities. The trainings also were attended by teachers of biology, geography and other natural sciences.
The NOU has attracted also three volunteers from the Armenian State College of Fine Arts and Basic school of Yerevan N 11 after Monte Melqonyan , who were not only active in assisting in the organizational matters but also active participants and true environmentalists.
In Dilijan the NOU team was kindly invited to visit the Dilijan Central School (AYB School) which houses a fab lab, an industrial research lab, which has been established in cooperation with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. An oral agreementhas been obtained between the NOU Team and the school administration on awareness raising activity which will be considered for the second half of this year or for the next year.
