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 financial support from 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 encountered in modern conditions” was attended by Steshuk Daryna, project manager of the Department of Innovation Development of KAI; Denis Shilenko, acting rector of DonNTU; Serhiy Savitsky, head of KSE ProfTech; Lida Semichko, a student of the Computer Science major at UCU, mentor of the project “Leave No One Behind” (training of computer science teachers in STEAM education).

The forum presented a catalog of 60 organizations involved in the development of STEAM education in Ukraine, and TED-format speeches were held on women in STEAM, choosing a future profession, developing critical thinking in adolescents, gamification in education, ways for students to overcome the “fear” of mathematics and physics, and improving the image of engineering professions.

The activities of the Children’s and Youth Scientific University of NU “Zaporizhzhia Polytechnic” were presented at the forum by its director Olena Nazarova under the Open Space time. Colleagues from different parts of Ukraine were immediately interested in further cooperation – organizing motivational educational and scientific events for young people who want to make a conscious choice of their future profession. They noted the scale of the Youth Union, the modern approach to classes and the high level of events held for schoolchildren.

The project “STEAM in Ukraine, National Network of STEAM Communities in Ukraine” aims to unite STEAM communities in Ukraine to exchange experience, contacts, research results and practices, as well as to implement joint projects that will enhance 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 youth through STEAM education. This will allow us 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.

Working together – developing together!