Educational potential of urban environment: ecological aspect[Образовательный Потенциал Городской Среды: Экологический Аспект]

The development of an ecologically oriented personality able to understand the importance of finding ways to address the issues of rational nature management and realizing the significance of creating ecologically comfortable urban environment for each inhabitant is an imperative of today. The upbringing of ecologically conscious citizens is largely facilitated by the supplementary education system, which offers possibilities to create conditions for a deeper perception of the current environmental problems by the younger generation and to motivate them for the environmentally oriented activities. One of the ways to solve these problems is the development and implementation of interactive excursions in the context of urban environment. The article considers “Ecological Tram” – an innovative form of interactive excursion supporting environmental education of students in the framework of children’s environmental center in Chelyabinsk. The results of the research are presented, confirming the positive dynamics of maturity of the students’ cognitive interest in natural sciences. 148 students attending the “Children’s ecological center in Chelyabinsk” institution of supplementary education participated in the research. For the empirical study, methods of survey, questioning and G. N. Kazantseva’s method of revealing the level of interest in the subject have been used. The developed and tested methodology for implementing interactive excursions in the framework of supplementary natural science education has demonstrated high efficiency in the formation of an environmentally oriented personality of students. The obtained results prove the positive dynamics of the growing students’ interest in studying the natural sciences to gain knowledge about ways to preserve an environmentally friendly urban environment.