Svetlana Radionova, Head of the Federal Service for Supervision of Environmental Management, said that on October 3, the International Children's and Youth Award "Ecology is Everyone's Business" together with the partner of the award of the Higher School of Economics launched an online educational course for young people "Ecology and Sustainable Development: projects changing the World" on the Open Education platform. The course is aimed at supporting future specialists in the field of ecology and creating projects to protect the environment.

The first section of the educational course is opened by lectures by the head of Rosprirodnadzor Svetlana Radionova. Students will learn why ecologist is the profession of the future, how to solve environmental challenges that society faces today. In addition, the speakers of the course will give master classes on the creation and presentation of projects for the "Ecology is everyone's Business" award, starting from finding a topic, writing scripts, spectacular video presentation and up to the ability to publicly present their work, prove its relevance and effectiveness.

"Nature conservation is a national priority. In the coming years, global challenges in the field of ecology should be solved in Russia. This requires highly qualified specialists with burning eyes. Our educational course with the Higher School of Economics will help to find and grow such people. It will give an impetus to young and ambitious guys to try their hand, help determine their future profession, involve young people in solving the most important environmental problems and, of course, give them all the tools in their hands," Svetlana Radionova said.

The unique online course was recorded by leading experts of the Higher School of Economics, Rosprirodnadzor and the international prize "Ecology is everyone's business". Specialists share knowledge and skills that will allow students of grades 8-10 to have a competitive portfolio, receive preferences for admission to university and invitations to internships, the main goal is to clearly and easily show schoolchildren and students how to come up with and create projects in the field of ecology. 

"HSE has a number of educational programs and courses on ecology and sustainable development, and international research is underway. The new course is designed to involve young people in the creation of eco-projects. The training will increase the level of environmental literacy of young people, form an active civic position, develop supra-professional skills that are in demand in the modern world. As a result, students will learn how to create projects that are really useful for the country," said Nikita Anisimov, Rector of the Higher School of Economics.

The educational course is an applied manual for the development of eco–thinking of high school students. He conveys complex environmental issues in a clear language and helps young people generate ideas, scientific and creative initiatives to protect nature. The acquired knowledge expands the horizons and opportunities for self-realization.

"Due to the fact that ecology is an interdisciplinary field, participants can develop in completely different directions, including, for example, eco–friendly business, urbanism and design, engineering, and, of course, natural sciences. As part of the online course, we systematized our knowledge and experience at the HSE Institute of Ecology, invited experts from different HSE faculties and strengthened them through the expertise of Rosprirodnadzor and the International Prize "Ecology is Everyone's Business". We hope that the course will be useful to a wide range of people, and together we will really create projects that change our world," said Natalia Porotnikova, Deputy Director of the Institute of Ecology, PhD, Associate Professor.

The Higher School of Economics and the Ecology — Everyone's Business Award also cooperate within the framework of the All-Russian Championship of projects in the field of ecology and sustainable development "EcoLab" for young people. It involves more than 500 partner schools of the HSE, more than 300 members of the Technology Platform "Technologies of Ecological Development", leading Russian companies in this field, the project partner is the Movement of the First. As part of the championship, in-person open workshops were held in Moscow and St. Petersburg. The speakers of the educational program told how to choose a relevant topic and create a project work for participation in federal competitions and grants. Workshops will be held in other cities of Russia in full-time and online formats. 

In total, about 5,000 students from Russia and other countries took part in the HSE educational events and awards. During the year, joint seminars were held in many Russian regions, including Dagestan and Chechnya, with the participation of dozens of schools, colleges and universities. The presented methods of project activity help teachers and mentors to identify and develop talents, motivate young people to participate in competitions, popularize environmental thinking.