Study of forest communities on the territory of the Samara region with students and pupils to improve their environmental culture

The modern education system includes fundamental components, including the greening of the educational process using leading forms, methods and teaching aids. Despite a variety of environmental campaigns, environmental education activities, the ecological culture of the population still remains at an insufficiently high level. Often this happens due to the “isolation” of a person from the ecological situation of a particular region. In this regard, the question of the need to introduce local history information into the learning process and the mandatory personal acquaintance with natural objects and phenomena has been repeatedly raised. The participation of students in the development and implementation of social and environmental projects forms the assimilation of knowledge, value and patriotic attitudes in the activity. The development of methods and means of training and education should be interconnected with the achievement of other sciences, including digital technologies. In connection with the foregoing, we consider it relevant to effectively train a teacher whose activities will be aimed at the formation of an ecological culture of students using original materials about forest complexes obtained in the course of their own research in nature. A necessary condition for the formation of the necessary competencies among students should be called an activity approach in teaching biology and ecology. The article presents some results of educational, research and research work of students and schoolchildren of the Samara region, the purpose of which was to assess the current state of forest ecosystems in the Samara region. An example of the use of modern digital resources to study the occurrence and development of fires is given. Recommendations for the implementation of field research are given.