The first summer month is almost over. Nature is full of colors, fragrances of flowering plants, and the voices of lively nestlings. Young residents of Uzhhorod learned what natural processes occur in the park of the Uzhhorod Castle in the summer during the tour. On June 24th, they studied the trees and flowers that are currently blooming in the castle park, observed birds, and squirrels, and of course, played together with the researchers of the Nature Department of the Transcarpathian Museum of Local Lore named after T. Legotskyj.
As soon as they were in the castle yard, the children immediately felt the smell of lavender, which is now actively blooming. They learned about the benefits of the essential oil of this plant for people. They listened with great interest to the story about the common yew. This is a coniferous tree with fruits that look like berries. Another interesting tree that sheds its needles for winter is the European larch. Most children’s guesses were about the Christmas tree. The students also compared the bark of beech, linden, and hornbeam by touch and checked whether the trifoliate orange had sharp thorns.
Ruslana Dzhahman, a senior researcher at the museum, told about the animals who live in the park. During the year, you can meet about 50 species of birds here e.g. the largest pigeon in Europe, black restart, and noisy swifts. A permanent resident of the park is a squirrel who also came out to “say hello” to the children.
During the tour, young researchers played eco-games, which are described in the collection of project activities “Study, love, protect the nature of the native land!” (author- Alla Samoilova), which was released as part of the project “Church and NGO for environmental education in national nature parks”, implemented by the Institute of Ecological and Religious Studies in cooperation with the German Nature Conservation Union (NABU). Children collected a palette of summer colors and imitated a snake and birds. After that, they worked on creating posters with a call to protect nature. The little visitors really enjoyed this kind of vacation that includes learning. They made a wish near an old linden tree and promised to come back again.
The event was held within the framework of cooperation between the Institute of Ecological and Religious Studies – IERS (headed by Alexander Bokotey) and the German Nature Conservation Union (NABU Bundesverband NABU International ), project coordinator Ivan Tymofeiev, Nataliya Kulya (IERS).
Informational Service of IERS