There is no
place like home.
By Kuznetsova
Dar’ya, 14 years old
Gymnasium
166
Novoaltaisk,
Altai Krai, Russia
Teacher: Irina Gennadevna Vidanova
Travel East or West.
If North is good and South is better,
Which place is the best?
My country, your country,
Travel East or West.
Learn to live with one another…
One world is the best!
Do you like to travel? Have
you ever been far away from your native town or home? We begin to understand
the meaning of a well know proverb “ East or West, home is best” more
perfectly if we leave our home for a long time or if we come back home
after a long interval. Usually our daily life is full of troubles. When I say
“home” I mean my family, my dearest and nearest: my mother, my granny, younger
sister and brother and my great-grandmother and of course, my hometown.
I would like to say few words about
my great-grandmother and you will understand me. My great-grandmother is a Hero
of Socialist Labor. Her family moved to Altai in 1929. She started work in
1937, she worked as a farmer for 53 years. She has earned a lot of state awards
and medals for her heroic and hard labor. She is an honorable citizen of
Novoaltaisk.
We, the people living in Russia, love our country and are also proud of it, and
we would like other nations to understand and love our homeland. It’s very
important to speak about ourselves. Most people living in small provincial
towns and villages are shy of their native places. As for me, I am proud of
Novoaltaisk. My town has great historical background! If you are interested in
Russia and its people, you will have a good chance to visit my native town and
learn more about Siberia and its people.
Novoaltaisk
is my native town. It is located in the northern part
of the Altai region. If compared with such big cities as Barnaul and Biysk,
Novoaltaisk is a small, modest, provincial town. It was founded as a settlement
in the first half of the 18 century. The mention of this settlement can be
found in the chronicles dated back to 1717. At that time a small fortress was
built near Beloyarsk. It was dangerous to live there because of warlike
neighboring nomadic tribes, living nearby, so a fortress appeared around this place. For a
long time the fortress was both a fortification and a place of living. The
first settlers were impressed by the beautiful scenery of this land. They
noticed pine forests, different valuable animals and a deep river. Such a
combination of natural components attracted other people who came from the
Urals and began to settle on the banks of the rivers Cheremshanka and
Chesnokovka. The other settlement was called Chesnokovka due to the name of the
river it was built on.
The first settlers were not only brave soldiers, they were good farmers,
fearless hunters and skillful
foremen. Discovery of polymetal ore fields gave a push to the active
development of the Altai’s industry. A well – known manufacturer A.N. Demidov,
obtained a permit to work ore resources in Altai. In 1729 the first plant
called Kolyvano – Voskresenski was built. A.Demidov
chose a sight at the mouth of the river Barnaulka to build a copper melting
plant. It was a new way for Beloyarsk people to earn their living. They began
to deliver people and different useful goods to Barnaul.
When in 1915 a railroad was built, the life of the settlers changed.
From year to year the settlement was growing and changing its image. In 1934 a wood manufacturing
plant was put into operation. The origin of our town was industrial, but became a real industrial city during the years of the
Great Patriotic War, when defensive enterprise was evacuated to Novoaltaisk
from Dneprodzerzhinsk. The plant provided the front with engines and military
equipments.
In 1942 the status of the town was given to the settlement. So, we
consider this year the birthday of our town. The original name of our town was
Chesnokovka. Then the town was renamed into Novoaltaisk in 1962.
Today the population of Novoaltaisk is about 75 thousand people with
its suburbs: Beloyarsk, Bazovo, Novogorski and Tokaryovo.
There are some big plants and some smaller enterprises in our town. The
largest plants are: a cardboard
rubberoid plant, an iron
– concrete items plant,
a construction material plant, a carriage – building
plant, a bakery and a creamery plant.
Despite the difficult economic situation in the country, housing
construction is carried out in Novoaltaisk. Every year new buildings and modern
blocks of flats are appeared in the town.
Specialized medical centers operate in Novoaltaisk, using modern equipment
and facilities: cardiological, diagnostical. In 1995 a church was built in our
town. Many Novoaltaisk people can recover their health at a health resort.
Trade has been booming in our town for the
last few years. Private shops are appearing in the town, one can buy any goods
including those of well – known foreign trading houses. There is a great
variety of food, vegetables, fruit and goods at the.markets.
The present – day Novoaltaisk has a lot of
schools, nursery schools, libraries, an art school, an art – college, a
technical college, a vocational school, a department of the Altai state
Technical University and an
Extra
– Mural Institute of Railway Transport. These educational establishments
provide preparation in different professional fields.
Dozens of sports buildings are at the disposal of our sportsmen:
stadiums, sport halls, sport grounds. Novoaltaisk is divided into several
districts. Novoaltaisk is an important railway junction. The transport system
is developing nowadays. The railway today still carries the bulk of passengers
and goods. Bus routes are steadily expanding inside the town. It has become
easier to get to the centre from the outskirts. Town transport carries a lot of
passengers and goods.
Novoaltaisk is surrounded by a
picturesque countryside. A unique band-type of pine forests of birch,
pine, and spruce
stretch for dozens of kilometers.
What a pleasure it is to gather a
full basket of mushrooms and berries, to watch a squirrel crocking nuts, to
come across a hedgehog, a hare or an elk, to listen to the songs of birds, the
rustling of leaves underfoot or the silence of nature.
The history of my town is not long,
but I can be proud of it. Six thousand
Novoaltaisk people took part in Great Patriotic War. Every
third of them perished for their Motherland. The impressive memorial with a
grey granite pillar in the town square is dedicated to the soldiers of the
Great Patriotic War. The walls near the Eternal Fire keep the memory of citizens who perished
in the war. Their names are written by metal on the walls. I.I. Grigorev, G.N.
Chernov, A.E. Zemlyanov had the titles of the heroes of the Soviet Union. Many
people come here to put flowers
on their memorial. In 2012, we celebrated the 70-th anniversary of my
native town.
I would say that wherever I go to another
country, to a big city or to a small town I understand that Novoaltaisk is the
best town all over the world! If you
don’t believe me, come to Novoaltaisk and make sure of it! Knowledge of the
Russian or English language will give you a chance to exchange information with
people.
Learning
English helps studying culture, history, literature and people’s way of life. It is always exciting,
personally rewarding and intellectually stimulating. The mix of cultures and
backgrounds provides young people with an unforgettable awareness and a
lifelong appreciation of each other. There is no better way to learn about another country, its customs and
its people’s way of life than by experiencing it firsthand. Going East, West,
North or South will be easier to understand that there are many nice places,
but it is always important to live in the place that makes you feel at home!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Grass is not always greener on the other side of the fence.
Geography Fieldwork Report by Zuzanna Kubik
Location: Ojcowski Park Narodowy, Ojców, Malopolska
Province, Poland.
Date:
September, 2012.
Location of the Ojcow National Park
Location of
the subjects of our investigation: Sąspówka
River (marked on violet) and Prądnik River (marked on dark blue).
The
geographical coordinates of the points of our investigation are:
N50°
12' E19° 49'
The aims of the fieldwork.
Our
task is to compare two rivers: Sąspówka
River and Prądnik River.
What we will compare are both chemical properties like the water pH and
physical properties like depth and flow speed.
Wildlife
and the level of pollution will also be compared.
The fieldwork.
Our
first task was to compare the general information about the river.
The
width of the river is 2-5 m
for Prądnik and 5-10m for Sąspówka.
The
depth of the river is 10-30cm for Prądnik and 31-50cm for Sąspówka.
The
flow speed is the same for both rivers: less than 10 seconds.
The
temperature is 12 Celcius degrees for Prądnik and 11 Celcius degrees for
Sąspówka.
In
case of the bottom of the river, stones, sand and gravel can be found in
Prądnik.
In
case of Sąspówka, silt can be found and the bottom is much more concrete.
As
we can see, the rivers located in a very short distance from one another show
different properties.
Our
next task was to check the amount of rubbish in the river.
In
case of Sąspówka, there were:
-0
bicycles, trolleys and other household equipment
-1-3
cans, bottles, candy wrappers etc.
-1-3
packages and items made of plastic
-1-3
paper, carton and wood
-0
clothes, shoes, etc.
-1-3
aerosol and paint cans
-0
lubricants, oils, etc.
-one
plastic bucket
In
case of Prądnik, there were:
-0
bicycles, trolleys and other household equipment
-0
cans, bottles, candy wrappers, etc.
-4-6
packages and items made of plastic
-1-3
paper, carton and wood
-0
clothes, shoes etc.
-1-3
aerosols and paint cans
-0
lubricants, oils, etc.
-0
other items
I
will show the results on the graph.
Graph
number 1.
As
we can see, more amount of Rubbish could be found in the Prądnik river.
Our
next task was to check the chemical content of water.
The
water pH is 8 for Prądnik and 7.5 for Sąspówka. As we can see Prądnik is more
alkaline while Sąspówka more acid.
The
nitrate content in Prądnik was 10 mg/l. The content in Sąspówka was the same.
Water
hardness in Sąspówka was less then 5 d and it was the same in Prądnik. The KH
scale was blue and the GH scale red.
In
case of the water transparency, sector number 2 was visible after 15 minutes
for both rivers. This thus determines that the rivers are similar in case of
purity.
We
found Sparganium erectum –a bur-reed next to the Sąspówka river.
We folund Riccia fluitans-a crystalwort-an aquatic floating plant, in both
rivers.
We found Potamogeton crispus, a curly-leaf pondweed, in Sąspówk
River.
Phragmites-the common Reed, could be fund next to both rivers.
Carem- (sedes) could be fund in the Prądnik river.
We managed to find:
-black fly larva
-water spider
-dragonfly larva
-snails
in Sąspówka.
In case of Prądnik we found:
-black fly larva
-tubifex tubifex (slugde worm)
-water spider
-many snails
To sum up, during our fieldwork we found out
that Prądnik River is more clean than
the Sąspówka
River. It has a higher
water pH. It has the same nitrate content and water hardness as the Sąspówka River. The rivers are also similar in
case of purity.
Sąspówka
is a wider and deeper river, though. Sąspówka is also 1 degree colder than
Prądnik.
The
rivers have also different kind of bottom and different wildlife. Some plants
are also absent in one river and present in the other.
