ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES DURING MATHEMATICAL EXCURSIONS IN PRIMARY SCHOOL (3rd year of teaching)

Abstract

Although the General education programmes are aimed at developing children’s abilities to understand and communicate with the world of nature and to know the closest environment, the modern educational system devotes scant attention to environmental studies. Theoretically, everyone at school accepts the importance of research on environmental issues, however, practically only the teachers willing to discover something new are involved in such activities. Environmental education becomes more amateur. The believers in environmental research as the most efficient perception method do not have a feeling of disappointment. This is the exact media where social and ethical problems are successfully solved, socialization of children takes place, self-expression is encouraged, an attitude to protect nature is formed and abilities of scientific acquisition are developed. Mathematics is a valuable tool of environmental research in primary school. The author supposes that a right combination of mathematics and environmental studies can help with achieving positive results. Researching the immediate nature is the most efficient way to know it. The children acknowledge the environment through seeing, hearing, touching, smelling and sometimes tasting. Along environment acquisition, the valuable attitudes such as aesthetical perception and the moral culture are acquired. Environmental studies provides information necessary for successful teaching of natural sciences. The environment-centred activities assist the learners in gaining the initial skills at collecting and processing information. In the majority of cases, environmental studies cannot be imagined without mathematics, and therefore an accurate combination of mathematics and environmental education must be performed. In this case, a teacher experiences serious difficulties that can be overcome by the scientists fairly familiar with the methodologies of these subjects. The mother tongue, arts, physical education etc. encounter the same situation. The teachers and class mentors arrange plenty of nature trips, excursions and sightseeing tours. Nevertheless, due to lack of a clear policy and modern methodologies these activities are poorly coherent. Environmental studies are sponsored by private initiatives and thus not always are balanced and suffer from shortage of consistency, purposefulness and continuation. Key words: environmental studies, primary school, environment-centred activities.