On October 30, the Geographical Dictation, an annual international educational project, was held in the Big Physical Hall in SSU Bldg. III. This year the event has been organised for the eighth time.
‘I am so glad to see that schoolchildren, students, professors, statesmen, athletes, and outstanding writers are sitting here. In geography, everyone will find something of their own, there is something that everyone knows, so now you will not encounter scientific geography, but the excitement that you will experience when answering questions,’ Vladimir Makarov, Chair of the Saratov Regional Branch of the Russian Geographical Society, Dean of the Faculty of Geography, said in his welcoming speech. He noted that such events educate young people.
The guests of the site were an outstanding climber, the only one in Russia who has conquered thirteen of the fourteen 8,000 m high mountains of the planet, Sergei Bogomolov, a famous polar explorer who has visited both poles of the Earth Igor Smilevets, a Russian navy veteran, the organiser and Director of the Saratov Museum of the River Fleet Alexander Azovtsev.
Vice-Rector for Research and Digital Development Aleksei Koronovskii and Vice-Rector for Academic Affairs Igor Malinskii came to test their knowledge in geography.
"I participate in the project almost every year. Today there were interesting questions, they give reason to think, to look at some things and your knowledge from another side,’ Aleksei Koronovskii shared his impressions.
After the registration, Chair of the Department of Economic and Social Geography, SSU, Anna Molochko gave instructions on filling in the forms and commented on the tests. She also added that if earlier geographical dictation had been carried out only in Russia, in recent years, the project has already been held in more than 122 countries, and in total more than 2,4 million people have participated in it over the past 7 years. ‘Basically, we wrote dictation at such sites as today, we wrote in trains and at train stations, on ships. But we consider the international space and Arctic stations to be the most unusual venues,’ Anna Molochko noted.
In total, the dictation consisted of 40 questions divided into two parts. The first one – for the basic level contained 10 questions about well-known geographical facts. The second part included 30 more difficult questions, where it was necessary to use imaginative thinking, logic, and erudition. The questions from the multimedia board were read out by an actor Maxim Averin, a singer Valeria, an actor Steven Seagal, and the voice assistant of Yandex services Alice.
‘We conduct dictation at our university every year, and, this time, we are glad that so many people have come to test their knowledge. The questions are interesting: you can learn some new facts about the geography of our country. We believe that this project may well be called a geographical holiday,’ Maksim Chervyakov, Chair of the Department of Meteorology and Climatology, pointed out.
The results of the geographical dictation and the correct answers to the questions will be available no later than November 10 on the website of the Geographical Society.
To remind, the Geographical Dictation has been held since 2015. It is organised by the Russian Geographical Society. The purpose of the dictation is to increase interest in the geography of Russia and popularize knowledge in this area.
