Students discussing the task

A new form of educational tourism—the Live Lessons project—was presented in the Khakassky Reserve’s Taiga Literacy environmental education complex (city of Abaza) on May 18, 2017. The first live lesson in Khakassia gathered representatives from the Ministry of Education and Science of Khakassia, State Committee for Tourism of Khakassia, Tourist Information Centre of Khakassia, Khakassky Reserve, Economic Department of the Abaza City Administration, travel agencies operating in Tashtyp District and the city of Abaza, tour operators of Khakassia, and mass media representatives.

Live lesson at eco-trail

Today, live visualization of educational programs is one of the main trends in youth tourism. Analysis of educational programs shows that most of the regions in Russia have potential for organizing live lessons in history, geography, biology, literature, physics, chemistry, mathematics and other subjects; and tourism can be part of educational and creative development of children.

Doing creative task

The Republic of Khakassia is one of 18 regions in Russia that participate in the Live Lessons project. Achievements in the area of environmental tourism in Khakassia was presented by the State Committee for Tourism of Khakassia at the conference that took place in the Chuvash Republic.

Teachers from Abaza were the first in Khakassia to work on the program of live lessons. They decided to organize the excursion lesson in the Khakassky Reserve’s Taiga Literacy environmental education route.

Olga Kirilyuk—author of live lesson in biology

“We worked hard to design the lesson about biodiversity that we present here today. We studied the subject, then drew a plan of the lesson several times. We tried the plan, changed it again, and discussed all nuances,” shared Olga Kirilyuk, a teacher of biology from the School #50 of Abaza.

“There is no standard approach to live lessons. Designing such lesson is a creative process, and the result depends on a teacher’s passion for the subject,” said Lyudmila Mankovskaya, teaching methods specialist from the Department of Secondary Education of the Khakass Institute of Education Development and Vocational Training.

Students discussing the task

The first live lesson in Khakassia gathered students of classes 9 and 10 from the School #50 of Abaza. Children and invited guests were divided into groups—botanists, zoologists, ecologists, and artists. Then, each group was given various tasks to solve—puzzles, creative tasks, and tests.

“It is obvious that outdoor lessons are more interesting for students. When you work on a task and observe the result in real life, it is easier to learn than when you study the topic in a classroom,” noticed Viktoriya Trofimova, a student of the School #50 of Abaza.

Tasting tea and guessing the ingredients‎

After the presentation, the participants discussed how live lessons can be integrated in educational programs and environmental tourism projects.

“We started in Abaza, because here we have several schools, nature reserve and tourist agencies closely located. If we do everything right, live lessons will become a great tourist product in Khakassia with a complex set of services,” reported Angelika Cheltygmasheva, a representative of the State Committee for Tourism of Khakassia.

Participants of live lesson in Abaza

Teachers and Khakassky Reserve’s specialists agreed that environmental education complexes of the reserve can become a good platform for live lessons in biology, geography, ecology, history, and other subjects.

The next steps of the organizations involved in development of educational toursim in Khakassa will be aimed at promoting environmental tourism, providing material and technical resources, designing plans of live lessons, and finding or creating new locations for such lessons.