PhD, Associate Professor N.N. Kladkin¹
Senior lecturer M.A. Fedorov¹
Senior lecturer M.I. Vasilyeva¹
Senior lecturer L.P. Bugaeva^1
1Institute of Physical Culture and Sports of Ammosov North-Eastern Federal University, Yakutsk

Keywords: motor activity, average stride length, geology student, individual geological traverse in crew work, field practice.

The article was largely inspired by the commonly known idea of Samuel Tissot, a French doctor, who wrote in the XVIII century: “Movement in itself is as good as any medicine in its effects albeit all medicines of the world are not as good as movement in their effects”. Particularly valuable is motor activity in academic years, and any limitation of physical activity (known as hypokinesia, a common feature of modern lifestyles) is always associated with high health risks. Let us consider the geology students’ activity in the summer field education practices in this context.

The Ammosov North-Eastern Federal University curricula include summer field practices for students of the following four academic units: Geological Prospecting Department; Historical Department; Natural Science Institute; and Mining Institute. The academic education system gives a high priority to the specialist training curricula including the natural resource, fauna, flora and climate survey and research specialists that normally operate in scarcely populated and hard-to-reach areas of Yakutia. Their labour efficiency and safety directly depend on how well they are trained i.e. their individual physical, mental and physiological qualities, special knowledge, specific motor skills, abilities and experiences making it possible to meet the relevant professional requirements. To put it in other words, due physical education on the whole and the vocational applied physical fitness in particular are among the critical components of the modern professional education system.

Most of the national studies of the professional applied physical education (PAPE) system designs and content make a special emphasis on overall endurance in the professional physical fitness building process. Therefore, any relevant academic training system needs to give a high priority to the special endurance-building physical practices [3].

The study was designed to analyse the motor activity of the second-year geology students in the summer field practices at the Tomponskiy Permanent Training Ground of Ammosov North-Eastern Federal University in the Southern Verkhoyanye Area. The students’ physical activity in the field was recorded and analysed strictly within the frame of the formal Training Ground Daily Schedule approved by the Training Ground Principal and obligatory for every student and field instructor. The Training Ground Daily Schedule spells out the daily regime on an hourly basis from the wakeup to the lights-out time to ensure the students having every opportunity for fully-fledged field education, training and active recreation with all the relevant health protection, improvement and hygienic provisions for the whole field practice period. The Schedule also makes a special emphasis on the safety provisions in the geological hikes, with the students being briefed on safety standards by the practice managers prior to every route on a daily basis [2].

A geological route across the mountainous taiga terrains of the Southern Verkhoyanye Area is considered the core form of the geology students’ activity in the field practices. The everyday trekking activity on the routes – with a burden on shoulders and with the lower limb, abdomen and chest muscle groups, tendons and joints working hard – is highly challenging for any student. It is a common knowledge that every step engages about fifty muscles in the movement sequence, and it is only natural that the long trekking process perfectly trains the vascular system and improves the capillary and collateral blood circulation, with the smallest blood vessels expanding to better feed the skeletal muscles and heart.

As was found in the latest health studies, more than 50% of the university students are diagnosed with health disorders; and the North-Eastern Federal University health statistics reports up to 5% of the second-year geology students being diagnosed with health disorders. It is important, therefore, that the geological traverses of academic practitioners in the mountainous taiga terrains are designed so as to take into account the approximate distances across rugged terrains, water barriers, uphill, wetland and downhill route sections, the latter being classified into the running and solid soils. It may be pertinent to mention that every student is required to wear good waders to prevent ankle twists and traumas – since waders safely fix the ankles on slippery soils and underwater stones, in the uphill and downhill sections etc.

One of the goals of our study was to analyse the students’ physical activity during the field education practices including geological hikes in the mountainous taiga terrains as compared to the traditional indoor academic education process at the university. For the purposes of the geology students’ motor activity analyses, we summarised the 5-years-long practical field practice management experience in the period of 2012 to 2016, with multiple geological hikes in the extreme conditions of the mountainous taiga terrains of the North Yakutia, with all the students for the 5 years (364 in total) being subject to our tests and studies. Our own study data and analyses were supported by theoretical analyses of the reference literature on the subject, interviews and formal written questionnaire surveys and discussions.

For the study purposes, we used to select an average non-sporting young woman and a young man tested with an average physical fitness and attending standard academic physical education classes twice a week. The young women’s stride length averages 0.55cm on the level solid soil that is regarded standard for second-year female students. The men’s stride length averages 0.60cm that is also regarded standard for second-year male students. The students’ stride lengths and step counts were visually fixed on the geological traverses, fixed and mapped in the logbooks with indication of the relevant traverse sections and terrains. In the winter academic education process indoors at the university the young women were estimated to make 5284 steps for the day time (2,906m in total) net of the physical education classes. The young men were estimated to make 4,279 steps for the day time making up 3,800m in total. 

The geological traverses in the area go predominantly across rugged terrains, wetlands, grassy sections, with relatively short ascents and descents back to the lowlands etc. In the uphill sections the students’ stride lengths were estimated to make up 0.30cm and 0.35cm for women and men, respectively, particularly in the uphill sections with the slopes of above 45 degrees. Every traverse includes an ascent on a mountain in the area dominated by the heights of 1500-1960m above the sea level. On the water crossings in the mountainous areas the stride length is normally shorter as required to control the balance on the slippery underwater surfaces with stones of different sizes often covered by waterweeds. The water crossings are particularly challenging at the start of the field practice when the local water streams are full-flowing due to the intensive spring snow and ice melting in the highlands; but at the end of each field practice the rivers are shallow and may be easily crossed in many places.

In the 2016 field practice, the second-year geology students completed 16 geological hikes varying in distances. The first three geological routes were designed for the overview purposes that means that every geological crew, save for the shift crews, were assisted by an instructor on the route. The instructors will brief the students on the geological situations on the overview routes, show them the rocky outcrops and layers on the way, explain their origins etc. Prior to the overview hikes, the students will attend daily lectures per one week to get ready for the hikes. The overview hikes are also intended to facilitate the students’ adaptation to the mountainous taiga conditions and the day and night water roar – since the Training Ground is 950m high above the sea level and surrounded by the mid-level mountains.

Upon completion of the first overview week, the remaining 13 geological hikes are performed by the geology students on their own in the crews composed by the Training Ground management, with each crew of 5-6 students including 2-3 women under leadership of an authoritative peer student. In the morning after the breakfast the crew leader will be instructed at the office on the specific geological traverse and mission, with the traverse being thoroughly mapped and discussed. Then the crew will be supplied with foodstuffs and tableware, prepared and checked for the hike. When on the hike, the crew will strictly keep on the traverse. The traverses (routes) are planned in such a way as to ensure a few crews meeting on a certain height or watershed followed by descents along their respective mapped routes. The three overview geological traverses total 31,200m. The young women and men were estimated to cover these three routes by 62,474 and 56,952 steps in total, respectively. The student crews on the 13 geological traverses will climb 13 heights including two 1520m high and eleven 1840-1960m high ones. On the whole, each student makes 16 geological hikes for the summer field practice period estimated to total 137,200m.

Each of the geological traverses is planned across the rugged terrains with the shallow mountainous water barriers crossed or went along the banks, plus the uphill and downhill sections. The routes also cross the lowlands dominated by the wetland and grassy sections followed by lengthy ascents along the water flows to the peaks and then along the watersheds and down along the other water flows. Each crew prior to the ascent will stop close to the water source in a place well supplied with dry wood, take a stock of water, make and take a dinner, and then go uphill. The geological trekking events are normally allowed only in fairly good and dry weather. The students’ motor activity in the summer field education practices is extremely intensive since every geological hike is estimated to take 7,565 to 29,826 women’s strides long. The motor activity reaches its peaks in the uphill route sections, particularly in dry and hot days when students have to drink and swear a lot losing and taking up to 4-5 litres per day [1].

The water losses are normally offset in the downhill route sections as soon as the first water streams are found on the way. A female student was estimated to make 236,768 steps on the 13 crew routes on average net of the other motor activity after the routes on the Training Ground till the lights-off time. A male student was estimated to make 56,952 steps on the 3 overview routes; and 218,349 steps on the 13 crew routes in the 1400-1960m high terrains.

Having compared the students’ motor activity indoors in the winter academic education process at the university versus their summer field practicing activity at the Tomponskiy Permanent Training Ground of Ammosov North-Eastern Federal University, we came to conclusion that the field practices on the whole and the geological hikes in the mid-level mountainous taiga terrains of the Southern Verkhoyanye in particular in the Russian North areas drive the students’ motor activity to the optimal maximums in the period. The young women’s and men’s physical activity in the geological hiking events were estimated to be 4 and 5 times as high as their winter-time indoor academic education activity, respectively. By the end of the summer field practice the students normally well adapt to the mountainous conditions and easily cope with the geologic hikes demonstrating good physical fitness.

References

1. Evseev Y.I. Fizicheskaya kultura [Physical Education]. 7th ed, rev. and sup. Rostov-on-Don: Fenix publ., 2011, 444 p.
2. Zhizhin V.I., Nikitin V.M., Oksman V.S. Geologo-s'emochnaya praktika. Ucheb. posobie [Geological filming practice. Study guide]. Yakutsk: YU publ., 2005, 114 p.
3. Ilyinich V.I. Fizicheskaya kultura studenta. Uchebnik [Academic physical education. Textbook]. Moscow: Gardariki publ., 2001, 448 p.

Corresponding author: fizkult@teoriya.ru

Abstract

Motor activity of geology students in summer field practices include, on an obligatory basis,  geological hikes in the mountainous taiga areas of the South Verkhoyanie mountain system (northern Yakutia). However, as was found by the latest health studies, more than 50% of the university students are diagnosed with health disorders; and the North-Eastern Federal University health statistics reports up to 5% of the second-year geology students being diagnosed with health disorders. In this context, the geological hikes in the summer field practices are designed with due consideration for the distance across rugged terrains, water obstacles, uphill route sections, wetland areas, and downhill route sections classified by the running and solid soil percentages.