Experimentation is at the heart of science. Thanks to a #DaVinciUkraine grant from the KSE Foundation and the STEM Talent Fund, a new project has been launched at Yuriy Fedkovych Chernivtsi National University that will open the doors of real, advanced laboratory research to schoolchildren across Ukraine.
The initiative will also help chemistry teachers from different cities upgrade their qualifications and master modern teaching approaches.
The project — a collaboration between Yuriy Fedkovych Chernivtsi National University and the Bukovyna Innovative Foundation — is Ukraine’s first-ever Center for the Development of Students’ Experimental Skills. It will begin operating this July as a summer science camp.
In the meantime, the project team is already training hundreds of chemistry teachers from across Ukraine (380 teachers have registered for the first lecture!) — teaching them how to create non-standard experimental tasks, how to support students conducting experiments at home, and how to make chemistry more engaging and less formulaic.
Behind the initiative is a team of Chernivtsi University faculty who have spent years preparing winners of Ukraine’s national chemistry olympiads. Among them are training organizers, authors of problems for the final olympiad stages, and instructors with experience coaching students for international competitions.
Thanks to the grant, the project will:
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Purchase professional lab equipment for school-level experiments — tools previously only accessible to university students;
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Launch a national summer chemistry camp with full immersion in practical chemistry — from synthesis to advanced problem-solving;
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Conduct training sessions for teachers across Ukraine to help them carry out complex experiments in school settings;
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Produce a collection of unique tasks to support teachers and students preparing for olympiads.
What will this achieve?
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65 students will receive systematic preparation for chemistry olympiads;
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45 participants of the summer camp will dive into hands-on chemistry;
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Hundreds of teachers will learn new tools and teaching methods;
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The first center of its kind in Ukraine will serve as a foundation for the further development of chemistry education nationwide.
We’re proud that, thanks to the Da Vinci Ukraine grant, this initiative has moved from an ambitious idea to a reality. Because this project is about helping children believe in themselves, about education that opens new horizons — and about a country that’s betting on science.