120 school students from Dzerzhinsk took part in the Inventing Engineers program

16 june 2021

Dzerzhinsk hosted a series of education-themed events - dubbed The Science Sessions - for students aged 9 to 12 who have showed an interest in scientific and technical subjects. They were attended by 120 students from five of the city’s schools. The project was implemented with SIBUR’s support as part of its corporate social investment program, the Formula for Good Deeds, and with the support of Dzerzhinsk City Administration’s Education Department.

The participants of the Inventing Engineers course spent five days tinkering with a Livetronic construction set and, guided by their experienced instructors, assembled various engineering models: an Asimov's robot, a rubber-motor car, a catapult, and a catamaran. To that end, each child was issued an individual set of equipment necessary for doing the practical work. In addition, the budding engineers came up with unique stylings for their design projects.

The Science Sessions are an exciting kind of experience that was equally enjoyable for us, the teachers, and for the kids. By working together, we were able to develop design skills, learned how to operate according to specific algorithms, while giving full play to our imagination. We would let our students take home the models they assembled in the class to style them to their liking, and, as a result, they came up with amazingly creative solutions, Irina Otstavnova, a physics teacher at School 2 and the course’s facilitator, shared.

My son is happy! Building robot models turned out to be a very exciting activity. When you are a part of a team of like-minded people there’s also the spirit of competition that’s at play, too. As in: who can do it better? This course, in addition to helping develop spatial imagination and modeling skills, makes it possible to develop an interest in being creative through the use of its exciting and entertaining techniques, and it might even prove helpful with choosing the children’s future professions, says Olga Rusina, mother of Roman Voronin, a participant of the Science Sessions.

The Science Sessions project was designed to help develop relevant skills and competencies in schoolchildren with an emphasis on engineering design, robotics, and physics. It is also about helping to properly set up children’s educational and leisure activities during their vacations and showcasing state-of-the-art techniques and practices to the local academic community.

We are very grateful to SIBUR for the opportunity to participate in the Inventing Engineers program. These were probably some of the most unorthodox classes for our students to take part in as opposed to just sitting in a classroom listening to the teacher talk and trying to get your head around an unfamiliar topic. Here, instead, you get to build something with your own hands. That way, you absorb new knowledge much faster and easier, and you get this sense of epiphany: "Ah, that's how it works!" Classes like that are very useful, as they combine development of practical skills and spatial thinking, and introduce one to the basics of mechanics. Special thanks to the organizers for the modeling kits we were provided, Yulia Yufereva, Deputy Principal of School 23, focusing on in-depth study of several school disciplines, noted.

Background information:

Support for and development of education and promotion of science are among the most important focus areas of SIBUR's activities under its Formula for Good Deeds social investment program. Dozens of educational institutions and research organizations from the cities where the company operates take part in the company's educational programs each year.

The Formula for Good Deeds, SIBUR's social investment program was launched on February 1, 2016, in all key cities where the company has a presence. It has been focusing on six key areas that address the most important social issues such as urban development, education and science, sports and healthy living, environmental protection, culture, and volunteering. For more information about the program, please visit www.formula-hd.ru.