News - Russia
GLOBE Program restarts in Central Asia with the training in Bishkek, Kyrgyz Republic
With the aim of reactivating the program in Kyrgyz Republic, Europe and Eurasia Regional Office and the GLOBE Kyrgyz coordinator organized a major teacher training at the Kyrgyz National University in Bishkek in February 2019.
More than 40 teachers arrived from different regions of the country to learn about Atmosphere, Hydrosphere, Soils and Biosphere. Some of the participants spent 12 hours on the road as it is not always easy to get to the capital in an extensively mountain country as Kyrgyz Republic. Teachers´ motivation to take part in the workshop was incredibly high since the event was announced.
The teachers were not the only participants, the event attracted also students from Kyrgyz National University and the representatives of NABU Kyrgyzstan, the large network fostering endangered species conservation programs in the country. The newly established partnership of GLOBE in Kyrgyz Republic and the NABU network also shows the potential of connecting GLOBE Program to the key local environmental initiatives and organizations.
Since the very beginning, the participants showed enduring enthusiasm to develop their skills in science and environmental education. Most of them geographers by background, they could fully understand how important it is to study the place where we live. They have come with their own ideas on how to make use of what GLOBE offers. From hands-on learning to using GLOBE apps, there was an endless stream of curious questions and brand new ideas. At the end of the training, teachers brainstormed on how they can collaborate with each other and where to get more resources so that they can purchase equipment. As one of the participants commented: "Three days were too short".
The country coordinator, Mr. Murataly concludes: “Introducing GLOBE activities to Kyrgyz teachers is an important step. Earlier, they had a lot of seminars in the field of methodology, but they always called for hands-on approach to make the geography more attractive to students. That is why everybody was so excited to carry out various measurements and observations of natural processes and phenomena.”
Trainers are lacking in Kyrgyz Republic, therefore they Fedor Surkov from Russia and Bara Semerakova from Czech Republic were invited to give the training together with the former coordinator Nurmira Zhamangulova. The training in Kyrgyz, Russian and English combined allowed teachers to fully understand the session in their own language and learn about the most up-to-date GLOBE activities at the same time. There was one more international aspect: Another country that plans to launch the GLOBE Program this year - Georgia - was represented at the training by Ms. Nino Bregadze, CENN, and Ms. Gvantsa Gabatashvili, Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sport of Georgia.
The training was well received by the representatives of the Ministry of Education, U.S. Embassy in Bishkek, Kyrgyz Academy of Education and the authorities of Kyrgyz National University. The event was also covered by local press and online TV channel.
News origin: Europe and Eurasia