LETI: LETI Summed Up the Week of Good Eco-Deeds
St. Petersburg Electrotechnical University “LETI” held the project “Week of Good Eco-Deeds.” The project goal was to increase the cognitive, emotional, and behavioral activity of young people and give them concrete and generalized ideas about environmental problems and good deeds things.
At the first stage, the team consisting of Taras Kustov, Vice-Rector for Additional Education of LETI, Daria Bodak, Head of the Public Relations Office, and Alina Akimova, Chief Specialist of the PR Office, launched contests for students and schoolchildren of Saint Petersburg and the Leningrad region. Individual authors and teams made videos on the topics “The Second Life of Things” and “Collect and Share” and took creative pictures in the photo contest “Before/After.”
The winner of the contest “The Second Life of Things” was the team of students of Kudrovo technopark school (Diana Elkind, Anastasia Kolesnikova, Aisu Gubanova, Marieta Khurshudyan, Anastasia Ivanova, Elizaveta Kuznetsova). Ilya Repin and Alena Bondarenko, students of LETI, won first place in the photo contest “Before/After.” Students of LETI Anastasia Pavkina and Darya Bun became the best in the video contest “Collect and Share.”
Volunteers from LETI visited the “Rzhevka” shelter for homeless animals to help its staff clean up after the winter, walk with their four-legged friends, and give them food and necessary equipment.
On the Ecological Knowledge Day, the Student Media Center told about the developments of the Faculty of Information Measurement and Biotechnical Systems and the Faculty of Industrial Automation and Electrical Engineering of LETI in the field of ecology.
One of the project highlights was a theatrical performance with game elements on ecology for second graders of St. Petersburg Lyceum 64, after which each of the children received as a gift an ecological fairy tale “Adventures of Inna and the Kitten from Professor Popov Street.” The main characters of the fairy tale are Inna and the mascot of LETI, the Kitten from Professor Popov Street. They travel through the labyrinths of the “Castle on Aptekarsky” and meet scientists from different fields who helped Inna’s uncle, a chemist, create a device that will save humankind from climate problems. The children and main characters collected the missing parts of the device – flasks with ingredients to give to their uncle and save the world.
“Fairy tales teach us to be brave and kind, kind not only to people but also to nature. We would like our fairy tale readers to grasp environmental issues at such a young age, treat our planet with care, and explore the world around them with even greater enthusiasm.”
Yanina Shevkovskaya, Head of the Student Media Center at LETI, author of the text of the environmental fairy tale “The Adventures of Inna and the Kitten from Professor Popov Street”
The second-graders liked the story very much, and they, according to Lyceum director Tatyana Prokofyeva, are very much looking forward to the sequel.
The project “Week of Good Eco-Deeds” ended with the presentation of the project “Caterpillars that Can Change the World” by Diana Zueva, a fourth-year student of the Faculty of Information Measurement and Biotechnical Systems of LETI, head of the university’s student environmental club.
“In the 21st century, plastic has entered our lives fully: it is used in the packaging, plastic-lined polystyrene can be seen literally on every portion of products found in any supermarket. However, polystyrene is almost never recycled. The only way to recycle it is the thermal method. When processing polystyrene by this method hazardous substances are released – styrene and benzene. They are poisonous and can make a person disabled. However, there is an alternative method, which is poorly studied.”
Diana Zueva, a fourth-year student of the Faculty of Information Measurement and Biotechnical Systems of LETI, head of the university’s student environmental club
Diana is studying the ability to recycle plastic by caterpillars of two species – Galleria melonella and Zophobas morio, a hundred of which can break down 500 milligrams of plastic in 10 hours. At the end of the project, she will evaluate the effectiveness of this recycling at home and the absence of microplastics or other harmful substances.
Every student or guest of the university will be able to observe the progress of the project: the terrarium with caterpillars is located in the lobby of Building 5.
Also as part of the “Week of Good Eco-Deeds” project, the organizers gave the student environmental club of LETI the necessary equipment for work – a laptop and a printer.
In total, more than 300 students and schoolchildren from St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region took part in the events. The ecological club of LETI is already preparing new master classes. The current club events can be found on the VK page.