New Science Lab Trains Next Generation of Innovators in Ukraine

The children of Kamyanomostivska consolidated community (CC), Mykolayivska Oblast, a city near the Black Sea in southern Ukraine, can now learn about science and conduct specialized experiments in a scientific laboratory that opened recently at their school.

The project became a reality within the framework of community-based cooperation with the USAID DOBRE Program[1] (Decentralization Offering Better Results and Efficiency), implemented by Global Communities. DOBRE aims to strengthen local self-governance and create better conditions for communities, increase the level of citizen involvement in decision-making, and ensure accountability and transparency in public administration.

The new, state-of-the-art research laboratory in Kamyanomostivska CC will help students feel like true scientists and expose them to some of the building blocks of advanced science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) principles. They will conduct basic experiments in a safe environment in order. Necessary equipment – including a digital measuring device, an analog-to-digital converter, a microscope, and chemical agents procured with the support of the USAID DOBRE Program – was repaired. In the laboratory, students will be able to conduct experiments that go beyond the school curriculum, thereby deepening their knowledge of chemistry and physics. Although the laboratory is located in the school in Kamyanomostivska CC, pupils from three other community schools will also be able to work there.

The idea of ​​the project arose during one of the forums of the USAID DOBRE Program, in which Iryna Solovyova, a leading specialist of Ukraine’s  Education Department, took part.

“We’ve all been working hard over the past year to bring this project to life, and it’s all worth it when we see our more than 400 children take an active interest in studying science,” Solovyova said at a recent community meeting celebrating the lab’s opening.

[1] Decentralization Offering Better Results and Efficiency (DOBRE) is USAID’s five-year program, implemented by Global Communities, which works to support the supply of good local governance and create improved conditions for the development by consolidated communities (CCs), increase citizen engagement in decision-making, and ensure accountability and transparency in public administration. The DOBRE Consortium, led by Global Communities, includes: Ukrainian Crisis Media Center (UCMC); Social Boost; Foundation in Support of Local Democracy (FSLD/FRDL); Malopolska School of Public Administration at the Krakow University of Economics (MSAP/UEK), Poland; and National Democratic Institute (NDI). DOBRE is implemented in seven target oblasts: Dnipropetrivska, Ivano-Frankivska, Kharkivska, Khersonska, Kirovohradska, Mykolayivska and Ternopilska.