Some recent efforts for the education in the Russian Arctic: the examples from institutes to individuals

In this talk, we present several examples of existing interactions between scientific community and large public, mainly in educational form. The talk is divided into 2 parts: the first is an experience from Arctic and Antarctic Research institute (AARI), and the second, from Saint-Petersburg State University (SPbSU).

From 2018, the AARI started to work with public, when several social networks were reached: Instagram, Facebook and Vkontakte, with an audience of more than 10 000 accounts. Daily posts with a constant feedback are written together with polar scientists: we widely use the photographs and videos from the expeditions to show in livethe current state of the Arctic and its changing, the work and the instruments of polar scientists, and the basic knowledge about it. We regularly publish the interviews with the scientists and have a special hashtag #childrenofpolarscientists. During these 2 years, we created a special concours for the undergraduates and secondary school: “66° 63”, where several winners can visit the Svalbard archipelago and realize their scientific or artistic projects. These projects are officially supported by a special Media department of the AARI.

The scientists continue promoting their activity at their level: giving the lectures, participating in the “Scientific Slams”, writing the blogs during the expedition. Publishing classical albums and books after the expedition, such as recent Transarktika-2019, stay important as a result of scientific journalism.

To illustrate the effect of local educational programs, we present the efforts of an ecological team from Saint-Petersburg State University working at Ust’-Yany village in the Arkhangesk region. The program lasted from 2013 to 2016 with a main purpose of letting know the local children what happen to their region and describe them the possibilities to work in a new environment, to develop their forests, create new jobs. The main audience was the secondary school children. A large support of local administration was obtained and helped to realize multiple short-term visits, 2 conferences, scholar projects. A very good feedback from children and administration was received for this personal initiative organized by students and professors of SPbSU.