SIBUR to hold intensive training sessions for teachers in YaNAO as part of the STEAM School project

16 april 2021

April 17 and 18 will see SIBUR support intensive training sessions for teachers of physics, mathematics, robotics and computer science dubbed STEAM School taking place in Noyabrsk and Muravlenko. The project is being implemented under the auspices of SIBUR’s Formula for Good Deeds, a social investment program. Its goal is to help teachers develop relevant teaching skills and competencies that will enable today's school students to become sought-after professionals in the future. The project encourages exchange of innovative practices and demonstration of unorthodox teaching techniques.

One of modern education’s most relevant areas is the development of students' engineering competencies based on their proficiency in such subject-matter areas as physics, mathematics, computer science, and robotics. This interdisciplinary approach known as STEAM (an acronym derived from the first letters in the names of five disciplines: science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics) amalgamates all five elements into a single teaching framework. STEAM School’s participants learn both the theory and practical aspects of how to apply this approach to their own teaching practices.

The training sessions were developed with the input from leading teachers and methodologists from innovative schools and education centers. They will be conducted using the on-site format.

The session will be kicked off with a discussion titled "The Modern Educator. Is there a place for a teacher in the digital world?" that will be moderated by Yuri Podkopayev, Deputy Principal for Education Environment of Moscow’s "New School" and a teacher of mathematics and computer science. This will be followed by a lecture delivered by Mr. Podkopayev focusing on yet another hot topic: problems besetting high school educations.

The program will also feature a presentation by veteran educator Yury Bobrinyov, a winner of the 2009 edition of the Moscow’s Teacher of the Year contest and a two-time winner of the Contest of Russia’s Best Schoolteachers held within the framework of the Priority National Initiative in the field of Education. He will be sharing his experience in setting up an engineering-focused education program at school and, as a practical case, will introduce class participants to Arduino, an engineering and technology platform, while explaining how its potential can be used for project-based work and in study groups.

Andrei Peshkov, Director of the Moscow Robotics Academy and a certified Lego Education instructor, will give a detailed talk on effective integration of STEAM methods into the standard school curriculum and will lead a hands-on robotics workshop.

Evgeny Shiryaev, a representative of the Science Workshop project, will invite participants to talk about finite-state machines and programming in nature. His lecture will present the cellular automaton, one of the mathematical models used performing illustrative exercises with algorithms. Attendees will learn about how mollusks use it to build their shells.

During a hands-on class, attendees will see a demonstration of the process for assembling tubular polyhedrons conducted by Boris Mironov, the author of the method and of the term "tubular polyhedrons". Class participants will learn basic principles of creating tubular polyhedrons. The needed sets of tubes for the exercise will be provided by the program’s organizers.

In addition to offering lectures and hands-on activities, Noyabrsk-based classes will feature a booth section where participants will be shown, among other things, devices and materials that either have been or will be covered at the lectures. For example, at the booth session titled Mathematics Suitcase, students will be introduced to a teaching kit packaged into a custom-built case designed for being taken on the road when shuttling between schools in a city and presenting mathematics to people in an exciting new way. They will also be able to see and assemble a self-supporting dome.

Yet another place to draw active interest of the participants will be a section called "Experiments for Engineering Study Groups" showcasing various items that could be used for developing basic engineering skills: a flashing lamp producing a "photophone" sound; a bathtub-filling sensor transmitting sound using a light beam; an audio amplifier; a binary counter; and an electronic postcard with an LED heart flashing in imitation of heartbeat. What will make the booth stand out is the fact that class participants will be able to hand-solder these devices’ circuits on their own.

The upcoming training sessions present an opportunity for our colleagues to meet fellow teaching practitioners like themselves, and not just some theoreticians. The bulk of our curriculum is focusing on hands-on cases and assignments, since the best way to acquire and retain new knowledge is through applying it in practice, making in tangible. We would like to not just share our new instruction methods and techniques with our colleagues but we also want to "reset" the way their thinking works. This would hopefully become a starting point for further transformation of their approach to working as educators, commented Yuri Bobrinyov, a project’s expert.

As part of the STEAM School, we are providing our teachers with an opportunity to learn through practice new approaches that are critical for effective education delivery and for developing a new generation of professionals. Their current students are future experts who will be working for high-tech facilities, or future business people and social entrepreneurs. They represent the human capital of their native regions, and it will be their level of competence, flexibility, creativity and the ability to think out of the box that will drive the development of their home cities, noted Oleg Malyshev, Director of SIBUR's Vyngapurovsky Gas Processing Plant.

"STEAM School" is a project that is being implemented with the support of the Department of Education of Noyabrsk’s City Administration and Muravlenko’s City Administration’s Office of Education.