Southern Federal University conducted the first STEM week in cooperation with the associated partners within STEM Erasmus+ project.

December 12

Maxim Bondarev, the project leader at SFedU, chair of the department of pre-school education, delivered a presentation on “STEM education and best practice of training gifted children in sciences and engineering in the Russian Federation” at the plenary session of the conference titled “ A personality in culture and education: psychological support, development, socialization”, held at SFedU.

December 17

Elizaveta Mukhanova, the head of the “Stem technologies in education” Master’s program, associate professor of the SFedU chemistry faculty, gave a lesson on snow properties for children aged 4-5 at the “Friendly children” kindergarten N223. During the lesson, children studied magic recipies and made powder snow and moist snow to build a snowman. Then they compared different types of artificial snow with real one in term of the temperature, texture, and the right consistency for making snowballs. Children learnt that snow consists of snowflakes, examined various forms of snowflakes and memorised that showflakes had six sides.

December 18

Anna Druz, associate professor of the Institute of Mathematics, mechanics, and computer science, organized a student mini-conference on “ History of STEM education and contemporary practices”. 25 SFedU students, future teachers of mathematics, analyzed the state-of-the-art education in Russia, and presented their projects.

December 19

Elizaveta Mukhanova created a STEM quest for the first year students of the chemistry faculty to promote research methods in sciences. Students had to use chemistry knowledge of the “structure-properties” connection to guess puzzles and of chemical solutions and materials to find the code for combination locks.

December 19

SFedU together with the high school N115, an associated project partner, organized a workshop on “STEM/STEAM projects and practices” for teachers and students of the high school. The teachers of computer science and chemistry conducted master classes on developing skills to program a robot and to conduct a chemical experiment. The participants discussed the interdisciplinary approach to sciences within STEM education at the plenary session of the workshop. Olga Borisova, deputy director, presented “Interdisciplinary approach to teaching mathematics and sciences”, Irina Krylova, a geography teacher, made a presentation on “STA studio as practical guide for introducing interdisciplinary approach in education”. Maxim Bondarev told about the tasks and activities of the “Integrated approach to STEM education’ project.