Ukraine will soon have a national online bank of STEM challenges in physics, astronomy, biology, geography, and chemistry — presented as short, accessible videos! The platform will be inclusive and will use a specialized neural network to analyze students’ answers and provide personalized learning recommendations.
The project is being developed by the Junior Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (JASU) with the support of our #DaVinciUkraine grant. Their initiative, the VPD-STEM Challenge Bank, is one of the winning projects of the grant program from the KSE Foundation and the STEM Talent Fund.
The goal of the initiative is to make STEM education accessible, visual, structured, and personalized. The platform builds on 13 years of experience running the nationwide tournament Open Natural Demonstration (VPD) and will now expand beyond competitions — reaching every school and every student.
This platform is another important step in Ukraine’s STEM development strategy. In 2024, the KSE Foundation began localizing one of the world’s most popular online education platforms — Khan Academy. Today, 15 of its courses are freely available in Ukrainian.
Thanks to the grant, the JASU team is:
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Developing an online platform for easy and free access to STEM challenges;
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Cataloging 250 and creating 60 new video-based challenges in physics, chemistry, biology, geography, and astronomy;
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Preparing a series of webinars for teachers, students, and JASU mentors.
In September, the platform will launch in beta mode — with student access and basic functionality. After that, it will be gradually improved: personal accounts, a feedback system, analytics, and integration with other JASU resources.
The platform will become a full-fledged learning environment for personalized preparation for contests, tournaments, and olympiads:
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All Ukrainian schoolchildren will gain access to olympiad-level tasks in an autonomous system powered by AI supervision;
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Over 3,000 students from grades 7–12 will use the platform to prepare for competitions and develop research skills;
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Teachers will gain experience using AI-based learning systems;
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Access to STEM education will expand for children in frontline regions, displaced students, and youth living abroad;
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As well as for students who are hard of hearing or have other special educational needs.
The VPD-STEM Challenge Bank is a tool designed to help everyone grow — everyone who dreams of science and wants to reach it, despite distance, war, or limited resources.