A training for young people dedicated to STEM education took place in Kyiv
In March, 10 youth teams from all over Ukraine joined the national wave of the UPSHIFT programme.
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In March, 10 youth teams from all over Ukraine joined the national wave of the UPSHIFT programme. This time around, it was dedicated to supporting science and technology and the popularization of STEM subjects. During the wave, 40 participants developed their projects and received funding for their implementation.
The young people worked on solving urgent problems that directly concern them and relate to the wave's topics. These include the lack of STEM education services for preschoolers, low levels of mathematical competence among peers, lack of opportunities for scientific experiments among students in villages, insufficient cybersecurity education, and the need for space for STEM development.
"We want to create a STEM space to hold robotics events. In our local community, this will be for the first time. This is a chance for local children to learn something new and improve their skills. We plan to hold robotics events for vulnerable groups, namely IDP children and children with disabilities. This will help them improve many skills—starting with speech development, as there will be live communication, and ending with motor skills and others. This will help us integrate STEM into the local community and develop skills necessary for people from socially vulnerable groups," the Stemogo team members from the Kirovohradska region comment on their future project.
The national wave of the UPSHIFT programme is being implemented in cooperation with the Small Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, whose team will support the participants in implementing their initiatives.
"Inspiration alone is not enough to turn an idea into a project. It is also necessary to have general knowledge and methodology on how to implement this idea. And that's what STEM is for. That's why this wave of UPSHIFT and the SAS is so important," says Nataliia Lehka, Head of the Department of Educational Process Organization at the Small Academy of Sciences of Ukraine.
During the next three months, the teams will be working on the implementation of their projects to improve the world with the help of science!
"These 4 days have been great. We have learned how to work in a team, which is difficult in everyday life because in the Kharkiv region, where we are from, almost everything is done online. Also, during the bootcamp, we worked out the problem we came to the programme with and completely changed the idea of our project. Our team will work with the topic of artificial intelligence and spread knowledge about it. This is important because AI is developing very quickly, but only a few people use its full potential," Denys, 20, shares his impressions.
The national wave of the UPSHIFT programme, dedicated to supporting science and technology and the popularization of STEM subjects, is being implemented by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) together with the Slavic Cultural Center Zadzerkallia and the Small Academy of Sciences of Ukraine with the support of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development through the German State Development Bank KfW.
