2nd Russian-Mexican Expedition

Dates: 24/10/2011 - 09/11/2011 Organisers: MGDD(U)T, OODI, La RED Place: Mexico Level: International

Joined Russian-Mexican expedition to the State of Veracruz, October, 24th - November, 9th

The expedition to Mexico was organized by the Moscow Centre for Children and Youth Creativity, Lyceum 1553 “Litsey na Donskoy” and the All-Russian Movement of Creative Teachers “Researcher” and was supported by the International Movement for Leisure Activities in Science and Technology (MILSET), the RED Nacional de Actividades Juveniles en Ciencia y Tecnología and the government of the State of Veracruz. It has been the second project of the kind: the first expedition took place in Central Mexico in autumn, 2009.

The main idea of the expedition was to create the direct educational contacts among the schoolchildren and teachers of Russia and Mexico, to hold joint programs in the sphere of research activity of schoolchildren, to represent different methods in the sphere of school education. The expedition was in the honour of great scientists and travelers – Alexander von Humboldt and Charles Darwin.

The main goal of the expedition was to develop intellectual, emotional and moral potential of schoolchildren. Learning new natural peculiarities and culture provokes the interest in researching, the children are eager to know the country. One more goal was to rise the professional level of teachers from Moscow and Russia through the experience exchange in the sphere of study and research.

The expedition included best schoolchildren, who proved themselves to be successful in mastering the studying programs in geology and psychology, made researches and took part in all-Russian and international conferences and were singled out there.

Russian delegation included: 10 pupils of senior school from Moscow Lyceum 1553 “Litsey na Donskoy”; teachers – Elena Moiseevna Gurvich, PhD in geology and mineralogy, a teacher of additional education at the Moscow Centre for Children and Youth Creativity, Aleksey Sergeevich Obukhov, PhD in psychology, professor, a chairman of the chair of psychology of education of MSPU, Julia Sergeevna Barkova, PhD in culturology, a senior lecturer of the chair of culturology of MSU.

The participants had to make researches in the spheres of geology (supervised by E.N. Gurvich) and socio-cultural psychology and anthropology (supervised by A.S. Obukhov).

The general research and educational goal for group was the acquaintance with:

• the history and culture of Mesoamerican peoples, visiting archaeological objects and anthropological museums; · landscapes, natural and agricultural varieties of the State of Veracruz;
• various scientific, technological and educational objects, establishments, projects and events in the State of Veracruz. Research tasks in the sphere of socio-cultural anthropology and psychology:
• studying and understanding the way of living and the way of thinking of modern Mexicans taking into account historical and cultural traditions;
• researching modern traditions of the Mexican culture and its historical roots by the example of the Day of the Dead celebration;
• cross-cultural psychological researching the image of the world, social and individual identity, auto- and hetero ethnic stereotypes, cultural distance of the Russians and the Mexicans; Research tasks in the sphere of biology:
• researching the volcanic craters, gathering the samples from crater lakes and cinder cones;
• researching Pliocene and Pleistocene lava of the volcano of Orizaba;
• researching the sulphur cave not far from the village of Carizal; · researching coastal dunes of the Gulf of Mexico; · researching volcanic types of soil;
• collecting the samples of mauls.

The expedition turned out to be very eventful. A great number of geologic and soil samples and herbarium were gathered. We watched the celebration of the Day of the Dead and shot many other ceremonies. There were held cross-cultural psychological researches (about 150 Mexicans were questioned).

We are thankful to all our Mexican colleagues, who helped to organize this difficult, but very eventful expedition. Especially we are thankful to the coordinators of our expedition – Rafael Flores, Olivia Reyna Sanchez, Juan Alberto Guevara, Roberto Hidalgo, and to the government of the State of Veracruz, who supported this expedition.

At the end of the expedition we started planning a new one – to the States of Oaxaca and Chiapas, and think about other joint projects with our Mexican colleagues.