All-Ukrainian Forum of STEAM Communities

On September 11, the NGO “Youth Sails” organized the All-Ukrainian Forum of STEAM communities in Ukraine as part of the Vidnova Lab program, created by Commit gGmbH with the financial support of the Robert Bosch Foundation on the basis of the Kyiv School of Economics.

The forum brought together educators, scientists, business and the public to jointly search for ways to develop education in Ukraine, emphasizing that STEAM is primarily about people who create change.

The panel discussion “Trends in STEAM education and what challenges it has faced in modern conditions” was attended by Steshuk Darina, project manager of the Department of Innovative Development of KAI; Denis Shilenko, v. at. rector of DonNTU; Serhiy Savytskyi, head of KSE ProfTech; Lida Semichko, a student majoring in “Computer Science” at UCU, mentor of the project “Leave no one behind” (training of informatics teachers in STEAM education).

At the forum, a catalog of 60 organizations engaged in the development of STEAM education in Ukraine was presented, speeches were held in the TED format on women in STEAM, the choice of a future profession, the development of critical thinking of teenagers, gamification in education, ways for students to overcome the “fear” of mathematics and physics, and to improve the image of engineering professions.

Activities of the Children’s and Youth Scientific University of Zaporizhzhya Polytechnic University were presented at the forum by its director Olena Nazarova during Open Space. Colleagues from different parts of Ukraine were immediately interested in further cooperation — the organization of motivational educational and scientific events for young people who are striving to make a conscious choice of their future profession. They noted the scale of DUNU, the modern approach to classes, and the high level of events for schoolchildren.

The project “STEAM in Ukraine, the National Network of STEAM communities in Ukraine” aims to unite the STEAM communities of Ukraine to exchange experiences, contacts, results of research and practices, as well as to implement joint projects that will increase social impact.

The idea of the project arose from the desire to investigate how many NGOs, spaces and laboratories there are in Ukraine that develop young people through STEAM education. This will make it possible to identify unique experiences to support young people and determine how many STEAM laboratories still need to be opened to cover the entire territory of the country, especially in small towns and villages.

We work together — we develop together!