On the prospects for developing the regional ecological competition with interregional participation «Eco-Monitor» in additional education of students and schoolchildren

Environmental education plays an integrative role in the entire education system at different stages. It performs a variety of pedagogical functions, including promoting the formation and development of a unified picture of the world in the minds of learners (students and schoolchildren); is an essential component of the humanization of education at all levels; forms general skills to predict one's own activities and the activities of others; expands the possibilities of moral education in the learning process; promotes the development of patriotism. The foundation of the environmental consciousness of each person, especially at the time of personality formation, is natural science knowledge, which forms a balanced, com-petent, scientifically based understanding of the surrounding world and a reasonable attitude to the phenomena and pro-cesses occurring in nature. Additional education in the natural sciences, aimed at developing the relevant competencies in children and young people, has a significantly greater variability in the activity of forming the environmental culture and consciousness of students and schoolchildren. Participation of schoolchildren and students in the implementation of various social and environmental projects, campaigns, competitions forms the acquisition of knowledge, value systems in the activity, allows them to become patriots of their homeland. The Regional Ecostation (Samara Regional Children's Ecological and Biological Center, Samara) has been implementing various bioecological events and campaigns for children and young people for many years. The teachers of the ecostation have developed and are holding the ECO-Monitor com-petition, which has now reached the all-Russian level. The competition has been held for four years, showing the interest of the participants and good coverage of participants. An increase in the number of applications was noted in all compe-tition nominations. In 2021 and 2022, applications from primary school children prevailed, who are most often more active as participants. However, in 2023, the results of the competition showed a noticeable increase in the number of participants in the middle and older age groups, including students. Feedback from the participants of the competition shows interest in it from different age groups, both schoolchildren and 1st and 2nd year students. The competition allows you to realize your potential in the course of performing project and scientific work in accordance with the nominations of the competition - ECO-view, ECO-perspective, ECO-team, ECO-mentor. Most of the students presented various pro-jects that are relevant, novel, scientifically and practically oriented.