The crew continues to take part in the international educational project of the Tomsk Regional Branch of the Russian Geographical Society. The fifth meeting of school students and world-around travelers was on 23rd of May and was dedicated to the ‘Age of Discovery’. Alvaro de Marichalar, who is on his own trip around the world now, also became a member of the meeting alongside Evgeny Kovalevski and Stanislav Berezkin. Artec, the Corps of Cadets (Cronstadt), Perspectiva school (Tomsk), Tomsk State University and the Brazil-Russian school (Rio-de-Janeiro) were the active platforms of the lesson. The schoolers talked to the travelers online and had a contest for a special prize from the Russian Geographical Society.
The fifth Lesson from the ocean took place on 23rd of May and was already like a tradition uniting children from Russia, Europe and South America altogether. Live broadcast started at 1 pm MSK (GMT+3), it was opened by Julia Kaluzhnaya (Executive director TRD of RSA, Candidate of Geographical Sciences, Associate Professor in Tomsk State University). The audience of the interactive platforms and Youtube was greeted by the Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of the Russian Federation in the Federative Republic of Brazil Alexei Labetski.
‘Our sailors are still remembered. It was Bellingshausen, Krusenstern, Lisyanskiy and Lazarev who made a huge contribution in creating our fleet <…> and they were the first people to reach Antarctica — the last unknown continent on the planet’ — noticed the Ambassador.
Honorary president of Russian geographical society and the supervisor of the project Vladimir Kotlyakov also joined the meeting with his best wishes to all of the students.
Next came the most interesting part. The schoolers learned about the ‘Age of Discovery’ in a very vivid and informative way. For example, were you aware about one thing, the lack of which would have made the discoveries to start later? Well, the participants of The lesson from the ocean know the right answer for sure: it’s black pepper and cinnamon. They also heard from Spanish traveler Alvaro de Marichalar about the first world-around trip made by Ferdinand Magellan and Juan Elcano (1519-1521). The result of this trip was proving the Earth’s sphericity. Evgeny Kovalevski and Julia Kaluzhnaya prepared a report from Brazil in which they told about Russian admirals’ contribution to the world exploration and also conducted a virtual excursion in the footsteps of Bellingshausen, Krusenstern and Golovnin during their stop in Rio-de-Janeiro.
Those and many other curious facts made the lesson catchy for the listeners and colorful videos helped to refresh school knowledge. During the second half of the lesson interactive platforms took part in a quiz and competed for the special prize from the Russian Geographical Society. Two platforms turned out to be equally attentive — Artec and the Kronstadt naval Corps of Cadets.
Of course, there also was the favorite part of children and teenagers — live conversation with the travelers. Evgeny Kovalevski and Stanislav Berezkin (the crew of the world-around expedition on the trimaran ‘Russian Ocean Way’) and Alvaro de Marichalar (the leader of the single-person trip around the world on a aquabike ‘Magellan’s way’) answered all the questions.
‘Our highest priority as RGS is to unite students to explore the world. We focus our attention on the connection of different ages by telling about the great travelers of the past and their descendants — the travelers of the 21st century, who are repeating their paths now. We’ve completed our mission today and, of course, we want to continue’ — shared Julia Kaluzhnaya, the organizer and moderator of The lessons from the ocean.
More than 500 schoolers joined The lesson from the ocean and left their feedback:
-Thanks a lot for the opportunity to be a part of this wonderful event. Our admiration and gratitude to the travelers! (Svetlana, Crimea, Artec)
— The most enjoyable thing was to learn about modern travelers and what they do during their trips and being home. Next time I will participate at any cost because I get to know a lot of new things from each Lesson from the ocean. (Ivan, Tomsk)
-Great thanks to organizers and participants from the Ural for interesting facts and the excellent way of teaching. (Irina, Denmark)
For all the willing to look at the ‘Age of Discovery’ there is a possibility to watch the recording of the live broadcast on our Youtube-channel ‘РГО Томск’. The next Lesson from the ocean is planned for autumn 2022.
Tomsk Regional Branch of Russian Geographical Society is grateful to the representative of Consulate General of Russian Federation in Rio-de-Janeiro Yegor Sergachev as well as to the interpreters Lika Sokolovskaya and Elena Ivanova.
Elizaveta Shaimbaeva
