The sixth Academician V.V. Skopenko All-Ukrainian Tournament of Young Chemists, dedicated to the 125th anniversary of the founding of our university, was held at the Faculty of Chemical Technology of the Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute. The organizer of the tournament is the National Ecological and Naturalistic Center for Student Youth. The co-organizers included Faculty of Chemical Technology of the Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, Faculty of Chemistry of Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Agrobiological Faculty of the National University of Life and Environmental Sciences of Ukraine.
According to Andrii Lapinskyi, the deputy chairman of the organizing committee of the tournament, senior lecturer at the Department of Inorganic Substances, Water Treatment and General Chemical Technology of the XTF of the Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, this tournament, like other competitions for school children, is part of the career guidance work carried out by the university. And this work becomes more effective if the university acts as an organizer and co-organizer of school contests, and accepts schoolchildren on its territory.
"This year, 80 school children took part in the tournament of young chemists, which was held in remote asynchronous mode. This is the most representative audience (in the past, starting from 2018, the number of participants did not exceed 50 people), said Andrii Lapinskyi. - An interesting moment in the tournament organization is that each of the co-organizers formulates tasks for the participants of the tournament with a focus on studying at their university. The participants of the tournament complete the tasks during three days (one tournament day - one university). Thus, in addition to the competition, the tournament consists of three interactive tours of universities, during which gifted youth gain an understanding of how classical chemistry differs from chemical technologies or agrochemistry.
The intellectual competition of chemists lasted four days, and the winners were determined according to the total amount of points they received in each of the three universities. For the second year in a row, Elina Kamalova, a student of the 11th grade of the Kharkiv Gymnasium 144, won the first place - 90 points. Taras Savchuk, a student of the 11th grade of Radyvyliv Lyceum 1 of the Rivne Oblast, took second place - 84 points. Vitalii Nedashkivskyi, a student of the 11th grade of the Separate unit "Scientific Lyceum of the Zhytomyr Polytechnic" took the third place - 83 points.
It should be noted that the support of the tournament is annually taken care of by the Union of Chemists of Ukraine. In my opinion, the management of this organization has an excellent understanding that new, professionally trained personnel are constantly needed for the successful operation of enterprises in the chemical industry, and the search for future chemists begins at school. In addition to the competition itself, career guidance work with schoolchildren and their teachers is carried out as part of the tournament. Our subject commission consists of lecturers of the Department of General and Inorganic Chemistry, including Vadim Potaskalov, associate professor, acting head of the department; Iryna Lisovskaya, associate professor; Nataliia Tarasenko, assistant; and Olena Shuranova, head of laboratories. They develop not only tasks for the tournament, but also lectures for school teachers. Thus, it is possible to get acquainted with present-day trends in modern chemistry and chemical education development. In fact, this tournament is a mini-training course for teachers, as well as it is a platform for lecturers of the Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute not only for the selection of talented schoolchildren, but also for personal acquaintance with the most active school teachers, who will later cooperate with the university in terms of career guidance activities."