The article proposes a theoretical basis, methodological tools and specific examples of research and project nature's study assignments, created using the School Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Russian Language. The proposed approach to the design of educational assignments and the assignments themselves were successfully tested at the educational sessions "Literary Creativity" and "Literary Spread", which took place with the participation of the authors in the Sirius Education Center (Foundation 'Talent and Success" and "intellect' (Leningrad Region), respectively.