Environmental education of students by means of hydrobotany

Currently, environmental education is considered as a key principle of sustainable development of society and nature. It represents the uniform continuous educational process directed on development of a system of ecological knowledge, abilities, skills, valuable installations, experience of activity and competence of the careful attitude to environment and rational nature management. Hydrobotany has great opportunities in terms of environmental education of students. We consider hydrobotanics to be the science of aquatic plants, their communities, processes of overgrowing of ponds and streams. It studies the features of external and internal water macrophytes structure, their life processes, the relationship between them and the environment, diversity, distribution, introduction, role in nature and human life (outecology); composition and structure of aquatic phytocenoses, their production and destruction, as well as the processes of formation of aquatic vegetation and its dynamics (synecology). Hydrobotany has its purpose and objectives, object, subject and methods of research, open laws, special conceptual apparatus, history of development. It occupies a certain place in the system of sciences. In Samara State University of Social Sciences and Education Hydrobotany is included in the curriculum of the main professional educational programs of the bachelor’s degree «Pedagogical education» (majors «Biology» and «Geography», «Biology» and «Chemistry», «Biology») as a discipline for students’ choice. We have developed a model of environmental education of students in the process of teaching Hydrobotany. It consists of four components: targeted, substantive, procedural, monitoring and evaluation. The target component-includes the purpose and objectives of the discipline «Hydrobotany» in the field of environmental education of students. Content component-covers the system of environmental knowledge on Hydrobotany; skills and experience of activities on the ecology of aquatic plants; value systems for aquatic plants and their communities; special competence of aquatic plants ecology study, their protection, careful and rational use. Procedural component-contains forms, methods, tools and technologies of environmental education. Control and evaluation component includes educational results; forms, types and methods of control, as well as a system of evaluation of individual achievements of students.