The Russian open youth water competition has been held since 2003; in 2023, the Kamchatka branch of the All-Russian Research Institute of Fisheries and Oceanography (VNIRO) became the regional organizer of the Water Competition. The purpose of the competition is to support research and project activities of schoolchildren and students in the field of environmental protection and sustainable development. Participants in the water competition are students of general education and secondary special educational institutions aged 14 years and older, as well as students of higher educational institutions in the areas of bachelor's, specialist's and master's degrees.
According to the head of the Kamchatka branch of VNIRO Nina Shpigalskaya, two works from Kamchatka schoolchildren were submitted to the regional stage: “How to make solving the problem of oil product stains in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky everyone’s business” by Alexandra Mamurina (9th grade) and “Educational clothing collection “Know ours!” based on the coloration of salmon fish from Kamchatka” by Ilina Margarita (10th grade). The latest work has reached the federal level.
As project manager Arina Shurygina said, the defense took place online on March 24-27. The competition was high: 86 junior projects and 18 student works from regions of Russia and neighboring countries were pre-selected for participation. An adult and youth expert jury painstakingly studied more than 2,000 annotations. On April 1, the authors of 27 projects that qualified for the super final were announced.
Margarita Ilyina’s idea to use the appearance of Kamchatka’s beautiful salmon to popularize knowledge about their ecology and rational use evoked a lively response from the competition jury, a lot of questions and practical advice that would help promote the plan. The jury highly appreciated this labor-intensive project, called it interesting and promising, and recommended contacting a famous designer to bring the startup to life.
The super final events of the Water Competition 2024 will be held in Moscow on April 20-23.
VNIRO press service