Integrated ecological education in the annual field courses to West Siberia

Abstract

Since 1995 soil field courses across bioclimatic zones in West Siberia were organized by a group of scientists from Siberia and Germany. These were soon transformed into annual (once a year) ecological field courses, which we believe successfully promote ecological education among students and young scientists from different countries. The courses were focused on virgin ecosystems undisturbed by anthropogenic influences, its individual components and more importantly multiple relationships between the components. The paper describes the main features of the field courses, the organization and changes in the content over the period of 2012-2019. This includes a short description of the field course route, interdisciplinary teaching approaches, the dynamics in number of participants. Special attention is paid to the evaluation of the courses by participants and results of the tests taken by student participants at the end of courses. Further proposals for improving the field courses are suggested.