The reformatting of the content of education proposed by the new head of the Ministry of Education and Science means that many educators will have to update their skills and learn new teaching methods. Teachers of Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, which is a recognized flagship of higher education in Ukraine, actively use the Internet and television in their direct professional activities, as well as to popularize knowledge among schoolchildren, attract them to study at the university, and inform colleagues, parents, and the public about their work.
"The use of media education technologies significantly improves the effectiveness of the educational process, encourages communication activities and allows you to learn up to 65% of the material," says Yulia Miroshnychenko, a teacher of the highest category, associate professor of the Department of Electrochemical Production Technology. For her, Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute is her home. Here she became a Master of Chemical Technology and Engineering with a degree in Technical Electrochemistry, a specialist in marketing with a degree in Marketing (second degree), and a Candidate of Technical Sciences (specialty 05.17.03 - Technical Electrochemistry). And based on the results of his activities in 2020, he was awarded the Young Scientist of the Year competition.
Y. Miroshnychenko started working on attracting students to the KPI community back in 2014, when she organized the scientific and popularization platform "Interesting Chemistry" (here she and her associates showed Ukrainian schoolchildren how interesting chemistry is, organized master classes, field lectures, scientific picnics, etc.) From 2016 to 2019, as the Deputy Dean for Career Guidance at the KTH, Yulia Serhiivna participated in the Schools of Applicants (held lectures and discussions for applicants), organized science schools for schoolchildren, chemistry and biology competitions, tournaments for young chemists and scientists (together with the National Ecology and Natural History Center and Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv), and simultaneously developed her "Interesting Chemistry". At the same time, she taught at the Chemical Technology Faculty and in the 11th grade of the KPI Polytechnic Lyceum, which made it possible to understand the psychology of schoolchildren and the aspects that children pay attention to when choosing their future professional path.
Subsequently, all the developments and experience of working with students were combined into the author's course "Science and Life", which has been introduced as an elective in grades 5-6 of the KPI Polytechnic Lyceum since 2020. The teacher also tells about chemical curiosities on her FB page (https://www.facebook.com/VeryInterestingChemistry).
"In my classes with students, I try to get them interested in natural sciences and involve them in experiments. We "play scientists" - we study utensils and instruments, conduct experiments, make our first conclusions, analyze the data, develop critical thinking, and learn to present our work," she says. "But the main thing about this process is that it gives us the opportunity to fan the flames of passion for science from the spark of curiosity that always exists at this age. And already in grades 7-8 (when chemistry and physics are taught in all schools), a child is ready to deepen his or her knowledge; moreover, he or she already wants to go beyond the program and make his or her first discoveries, conduct his or her first "adult experiments." If the child is guided in time, we will have a young scientist in the 10th grade." She not only gets her students interested, but also effectively supports them: for high school students, she helps them find the desired research areas and supervisors, with whom they then create "cool research papers for the Junior Academy of Sciences, Sikorsky Challenge, and other competitions."
Today, Yulia Miroshnychenko heads the Department of Natural Sciences at the KPI Polytechnic Lyceum, successfully developing cooperation with the university, regularly organizing scientific picnics and lectures by leading KPI scientists, in-person or virtual excursions to faculties, the DPM, etc. And she dreams of creating a regular laboratory workshop for lyceum students at Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute. "But this is probably after the victory," she says with sadness and hope.
And what about "Interesting Chemistry"? Over time, it has transformed into "Interesting Chemistry with Yulia Miroshnychenko," a YouTube channel of the same name https://www.youtube.com/@chemistJulia, which the teacher fills with specially filmed scientific videos (she also uses them to interest students in chemistry, teach them and deepen their knowledge), where she briefly talks about interesting or simply difficult things.
And that's not all. Yulia Miroshnychenko's own program "Chemical Elements" is broadcast on the Nauka TV channel. It is used by Ukrainian teachers in chemistry classes and advertised on social media by students and parents. You can watch the recordings on the YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCK-5TknjBdBZjwVHRfByPFQ. It was for this program that Yulia Miroshnychenko won the Young Scientist of the Year contest. "In general, there are very few Ukrainian TV programs of a scientific nature," she says, "In this competition, my main competitor was not the program, but the chemical section of the 1+1 channel (from the daytime show).
The teacher also has an Instagram page at https://www.instagram.com/interesting_chemistry_lab/. The war did not hinder the development of Yulia Miroshnychenko's media content on interesting chemistry. She was nominated again, in two nominations, for the Young Scientist of the Year competition of the Ministry of Education and Science. The jury highly appreciated both the TV program "Chemical Elements" and the YouTube channel "Interesting Chemistry with Yulia Miroshnychenko".
The mentor never tires of repeating to her students, future students/researchers: don't be afraid to discover something new and incomprehensible! Maybe this is exactly what you need!