Students from Karazin University Participated in a Summer School in Romania

From September 14th to 19th, 2023, representatives of the Institute of Physical Geography and Cartography at the School of Geology, Geography, Recreation, and Tourism participated in a summer school dedicated to creating and using virtual excursions in Earth sciences 

Professor Vilina Peresadko, Associate Professor Natalia Popovych, Associate Professor Kateryna Borysenko, and graduate student Yulia Serhantova took part in an in-person summer school dedicated to the creation and use of virtual excursions in Earth sciences. 

The school was held in the town of Vatra Dornei, located in northeastern Romania, surrounded by the Carpathian Mountains.

The organization of this summer school, aimed at supporting Ukrainian geographical education, became possible thanks to a grant from the Central European Initiative and the active participation of the University of Suceava in Romania. Dr. Marcel Mindrescu, who led this project, played a significant role. 

The main organizer and speaker of the summer school was Dr. Simon Hutchinson from the University of Salford, United Kingdom, who had previously conducted workshops on creating virtual excursions for students at our university's Institute of Physical Geography and Cartography. Dr. Elizabeth Harrell from the University of York, UK, graduate student Vaclav Duffek from the University of Western Bohemia, Czech Republic, and Associate Professor Natalia Popovych also joined the organizing committee.

Over 40 in-person participants attended the summer school, and online participants had access to live broadcasts of the event.

The event featured interesting presentations by researchers from over ten British, Ukrainian, Czech, Romanian, and Slovak universities. In particular, Associate Professor Kateryna Borysenko and the head of the GIS and Remote Sensing Laboratory, Vladyslav Popov, gave a presentation on the specifics of conducting educational field practices at the School of Geology, Geography, Recreation, and Tourism, especially in a remote mode.

The practical outcome of the participants' work at the summer school was the collection of field materials for creating virtual excursions in the vicinity of the town of Vatra Dornei, for which an expedition to Mount Ousoru was organized. Along the route, instructors stopped to take regular and 360-degree photos, recorded videos of the most interesting sites and locations, and conducted soil field research using the Mansell colorimetric system. 

Overall, all participants in the summer school gained new theoretical knowledge and practical skills, and they exchanged experiences related to field practices and remote geography teaching.