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NWP Global Registry of Apprentice Ecologists - Biyanka River, Kropivnitsky, Ukraine

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Biyanka River, Kropivnitsky, Ukraine
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Katia25



Registered: September 2018
City/Town/Province: city Kropyvnytskyi
Posts: 1
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I am Horobets Katia, I live in the city of Kropivnitsky, Ukraine. My Motherland is hospitable , warm and beautiful. The sun is warm and bright the wind travels through the colorful fields , the air is full of the smell of magic herbs, and after the rain you can gather mushrooms in the forest . Many poets, writers, actors and artists described the beauty of our region. It is our city that became the cradle of the Ukrainian theater culture. But today garbage has become a part of our landscape. Imagine today, Taras Shevchenko a famous Ukrainian writer who described the beauty of trees in blossom
A cherry orchard by the house.
Above the cherries beetles hum.
…A family sups by the house.
A star shines in the evening chill.


Could write about Ukraine, “ There are plastic bags, plastic bottles.. under the TREES on the trees , a star doesn’t shine anymore ..”
I am 13 years old and I study at the city lyceum number 25. Last autumn, I was chosen as the class monitor. It means I must care discipline, studying extra classes . But as I never stop I wanted somth more! Smth special. At the class meeting I asked my classmates to support me. There were many ideas, but most of all we were about a small river Biyanka, which flows in to river in my city .
The citizens of my city take care of it and love. Therefore, the students decided to check the facts and I organized a small expedition. We walked along the river, made photos, and took samples of water and soil for laboratory studies. We were shocked! Small dumps were seen in some places,. There were all kinds of household rubbish: a lot of plastic bottles , old wallpapers, household appliances, gutters, batteries, old tires, shoes, much glass, food waste . It was concluded that the majority (about 60%) of waste can be was used as a secondary raw material, instead of that we have dust along the coast. Without special devices, we could not determine the level pollution. With the help of simple calculations we can see that there are is 5-6 kg of waste per 1 m 2 of the coast. Just imagion! It was decided to organize volunteer ecological movement, in order to talk about the urgent problems of a small river.
Firstly , students, worked with archival data. We found old photos, newspaper articles and even a picture of a local artist. It turned out that less than 80 years ago the width of the river reached 3 meters, and the depth –was 1 meter. Along the channel there were many sources, the locals used water as sources of drinking water. Recently, the riverbed has declined several times, the river has turned into a small stream,its knee – deep !To drink? No its impossible to wash! .
Secondly together with our chemistry teacher Mrs Olga Tykul , we continued to study water and soil . We used soil samples to investigate the presence of chemical substances, acidity, the presence of heavy metals, using mechanical and chemical methods to biological ones.
Under a microscope, we saw pieces of food waste, white granules (like fertilizers), parts of plastic bottles and wood. Pollution was 40%. Such kind of pollution waste caused a slight increase in acidity of soils. The presence of heavy metals was also determined.
Water is polluted. Excessive content of uranium, radon, nitrates, sulfates, water has a high coefficient of rigidity. Pollution of groundwater with poisonous substances increases, wells and old sources close. Water in the river can be considered as dead water , frogs and mosquitoes, nobody lives here. In such water you can not even wash your hands.
I suggested to describe our research in the research work and we did it . We liked working together even the film was created our attitude to nature. We presented our work at the school conference. And in the spring, the whole class, went to clean the banks of the river and gave small posters to citizens not to throw garbage on the banks of the river.
The second ecological expedition has shown that there is almost no new rubbish, some of the fountains disappeared, therefore our work is not in vain. But there was another problem. Locals do not sort or pack trash. As a result, light plastic, paper, plastic bags, plastic bottles are carried by the wind and fall on the lawns and banks of the Bijanka River.
We had to teach the inhabitants to sort waste. At the class meeting, we decided to teach ll schoolchildren them to sort and package garbage, and then students will bring these skills to their parents.
Our goal was to make the lessons not only useful abut also interesting for students 7 to 14 years old. Therefore, we searched for games, exercises and ways to make the material interesting. For each lesson, we had a video that showed the ecological problems of our country and the city. The first lessons was for first-year students of Nursery School (new Ukrainian school), children were happy!
Videos we sent to the international environmental video contest "The Minute for the Future," where we won the third place.
Date: September 15, 2018 Views: 5390 File size: 16.7kb, 193.1kb : 1522 x 960
Hours Volunteered: 250
Volunteers: 20
Authors Age & Age Range of Volunteers: 13-15
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