Thinking in an interdisciplinary way: SIBUR supported intensive training courses for teachers in Dzerzhinsk

7 november 2024

A hundred teachers from Dzerzhinsk took part in a series of intensive training courses taught by seasoned practicing instructors from Moscow and St. Petersburg. Most of the courses’ participants were teachers of exact sciences including maths, physics, and chemistry. Presentation of advanced teaching practices to local teachers was made possible thanks to the support of SIBUR's social investment program The Formula for Good Deeds.

The courses’ one-day program was comprised of hands-on classes and lectures introducing trainees to new advanced methods of setting up classes in a given subject field. The attendees learned about available out-of-the-box approaches to solving problems and were taught how to set up scientific experiments. The class also featured a poster session.

Dmitry Zaitsev, a teacher of physics and astronomy at Moscow’s School No. 534, a winner and two-time medalist of the Meta-discipline Olympiad, a prize-winner of the Science DNA Olympiad, and a finalist of the Moscow’s Teacher of the Year 2023 contest, centered his lecture around state-of-the-art methods of teaching natural science as the best foundation for developing systemic thinking in children and helping them make sense of the world around them.

Anna Zhovlenko, a teacher of maths and computer science at School No. 29: "I really enjoyed the lecture given by Dmitry Zaitsev. I think that he chose a very relevant and useful topic. Dmitry suggested an interesting teaching methodology from the field of physics that can be applied to teaching mathematics, too. One would think that these disciplines are vastly different, and yet one can use notions from physics, too, to demonstrate how mathematics, the "queen of sciences", really works.”

The topic of setting up the teaching process at school was another equally exciting and relevant subject presented at the course. Yuri Bobrinev, deputy principal of Moscow Gymnasium No. 1514, a physics teacher, Honorary General Education Practitioner of the Russian Federation, and winner of the Moscow’s Teacher of the Year contest, presented modern approaches that are being used in this field, while also conducting a hands-on physics workshop. He used his Camera Obscura class to show fellow teachers the various unorthodox methods that could be used to explain physical properties of light to school students in a clear and vivid way.

Nikita Meshkov, a teacher of mathematics at School No. 32:
"My experience as a school teacher is not very extensive, so I am very grateful to the organizers for putting on such an event, as it provides extra motivation to keep on teaching at school on top of everything else. I got a lot of interesting and useful information here. Intensive training classes for educators are a great opportunity to look at familiar problems from a different perspective and get out of the rut."

How can a teacher help students develop universal competencies at maths classes, and is it achievable at all? It is not easy to make room in a standard grades 5-11 maths curriculum for developing additional "flexible" skills that are so relevant in today’s world without sacrificing educational outcomes. Ivan Menshikov, Head of the Mathematics Department at the Khoroshevskaya School, winner of the 2020 St. Petersburg’ Teacher of the Year contest and a runner-up of the 2020 Teacher of the Year of Russia contest, discussed the kinds of tools teachers and school administrators can use to achieve this goal. In addition, he gave a hands-on class on the use of such digital tools as geogebra and desmos in mathematics classes while also introducing teachers to some core techniques they can use to address a host of various pedagogical challenges.

Phase diagrams are known as a powerful tool for predicting materials’ properties, including those of alloys, glasses, and plastics. It can come in quite handy not only for chemists, but also for anyone who uses materials as part of their occupation. Denis Zhilin, Candidate of Science (Chemistry), author of school-lever chemistry textbooks, a teacher with 28 years of experience, head of the chemistry and materials science laboratory at Skolka, a private innovation school, developer of the Young Chemist’s kit, and Russia’s national representative in the IUPAC Committee on Chemical Education, unveiled some of phase diagrams’ secrets. Under his guidance, the attendees learned how to develop all sorts of alloys at hands-on practical sessions, studied their properties, and discovered how to interpret them by using the suggested methodology.

Yekaterina Feoktistova, chemistry teacher at School No. 23:
"The most exciting part of the course is, without a doubt, its hands-on dimension. At our class, we learned to use phase diagrams to deal with melting points of pure metals and their alloys. I simply am in awe! This is partly because these methods can be applied to teaching classes to our own students."

The class included a poster session that was used to present various innovative materials and aids that can be used in today’s world of education. At the session’s book stand class participants could familiarize themselves with the publications that either had inspired the session’s speakers to search for innovative solutions, or had been written by them. The part dedicated to thought inertia provided a vivid demonstration of the use of the laws of physics vis-a-vis those of logic. The poster session also provided its attendees with an opportunity to see and assemble the structure of a self-supporting dome and pass through a mathematical labyrinth.

It is the fourth year running that the Intensive Training Course project has been under implementation within the framework of SIBUR's social investment program in the cities where the company operates. The project's goal is to introduce school teachers to state-of-the-art teaching methods, improve their level of teaching skills and competencies, as well as align standard school curricula with the requirements of the contemporary labor market and the rapidly evolving technologies.

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