On June 14, 2024, the Federal State Budgetary Educational Institution of Higher Education "Kozma Minin Nizhny Novgorod State Pedagogical University" held the defense of diploma theses completed by bachelors of the Biology and Chemistry profile under the supervision of PhD in Biology, Associate Professor of the Department of Biology, Chemistry, Ecology and Teaching Methods Yulia Davydova (Fig. 1). The scientific consultant of student projects from the A.N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution of the Russian Academy of Sciences was PhD in Biology, Senior Researcher of the Laboratory of Ecology of Aquatic Communities and Invasions Anna Neretina. And the muse that inspired students throughout the academic year was the cladocera Daphnia.
Artist Alexey Litvinov prepared comics that humorously play out the process of hunting for this species (Fig. 2). In essence, comics are a didactic development aimed at increasing the cognitive motivation of schoolchildren to study microscopic water bodies and to develop an interest in research activities in general.
Another biology student also showed a creative approach to studying these Cladocera: poet and musician Vladislav Vorobyov dedicated a song to daphnia, performed by Kristina Chukhnina.
Песнь дафнии:
Взгляни скорей в глаза мои:
В глазок простой и сложный…
А сердце рвется из груди
Прозрачно-невозможное.
Ты сеть планктонную бросай
В мой омут чисто-черный!
Ты душу мне свою отдай,
Отдай и будь покорным…
Ты покорись красе моей,
Красе прозрачно-нежной.
Взгляни же на меня скорей,
Не стой на побережье!
Возляг с сачком со мной во мхах
Навстречу бурной страсти:
Ведь торакальных ножек взмах -
Твой путь к мечте и счастью!
Song of The Daphnia is available in Russian as a standard performance, rock, adaptation for schools, lyrical, and pop.
Стандарт, в рок-стиле, адаптированную версию для школьников, лирическую, в поп-стиле. They even filmed a music video with the participation of Yulia Davydova and Polina Tyutyaeva.
The song, the video and the comics are parts of a single whole: they served as multimedia tools for teaching biology for the school educational master class "The World through the Lens of a Microscope: Cladocera and Methods of Studying Them". The master class was held by a creative team of students during the summer natural science school "Wake the Einstein within You" at the Pedagogical Technopark "M.V. Lomonosov Quantorium" of Minin University (Fig. 3).
The story did not end there, and the creative team working on the artistic rethinking of methodological approaches to involving schoolchildren in science has expanded! The lyrics of the song about daphnia were revised by Ivan Rogozhkin, editor-in-chief of the Energovector.com Portal.
Взгляни скорей в глаза мои
Сквозь окуляр Олимпус,
А сердце рвется из груди
Прозрачное, как импульс.
Ты сеть планктонную бросай
В мой омут чисто-черный
Ты душу мне свою отдай
И будь судьбе покорный.
Ты удивись красе моей,
Красе прозрачно-нежной.
Взгляни-ка на меня скорей
На отмели прибрежной.
С сачком приди-ка в камыши
Открытиям навстречу,
Болотным газом подыши,
А я тебя здесь встречу.
Ты удивись красе моей,
Красе прозрачно-нежной.
Взгляни-ка на меня скорей
На отмели прибрежной.
Взгляни скорей в глаза мои.
Ты сеть планктонную бросай.
Ты душу мне свою отдай
И будь судьбе покорный.
Here are the links to the newer versions: first, second, third, fourth, fifth.
The team of the Laboratory of Ecology of Aquatic Communities and Invasions congratulates the graduates of Minin University on the successful defense of their diploma theses, and wishes patience and inspiration to Yulia Yuryevna Davydova in the difficult task of integrating science and education, as well as popularizing scientific knowledge! You too can join the art of hunting for Daphnia! To do this, just take a scoop-net and other inventory for collecting samples from the Laboratory of Ecology of Aquatic Communities and Invasions and, following the instructions, go in search of adventure! Summer has just begun!
P.S. By the way, some scoop-nets were made personally by the Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Chief Researcher Alexey Alekseevich Kotov, and the construction of scoop-nets is a process as exciting and creative as writing musical or artistic compositions. Create, dream, dare!