Grownup deeds from young talents
“Do you like to watch pigeons fly?” Roman Novak, student of School No. 1 from the hamlet of Mezhova in Dnipropetrovsk oblast, asked The Day’s correspondent. It turned out that Roman is rearing the Mykolayiv species of pigeons that have been bred in Ukraine sometime since the fifteen or sixteenth centuries and fascinated generations of pigeon lovers by their beauty. Roman is seeking to preserve the genotype of Ukrainian pigeons and the Mykolayiv species attracted him with their unusual style of flight: the pigeon shoots up above the clouds and hovers there like a skylark or butterfly. There was a time when, before starting their daily chores, Ukrainian peasants would let their pigeons out and into the sky, admiring their flight and arguing over whose pigeons flew better.
The Day’s correspondent met Roman Novak in Kyiv at the all- Ukrainian forum of gifted children called New Names in the Natural Sciences. The event, an exhibition of research and practical projects made by young people, was organized by the Ministry of Education and Science in the National Environmental and Naturalist Center for Students. As Chair of its Biology Department Viktoriya Prokopenko told The Day that this is the first time such a forum aimed at promoting interest among schoolchildren in research and invention has been held in Ukraine. In total, seventy projects related to medicine, chemistry, physics, biology, and ecology by senior grade schoolchildren from fifteen oblasts and Kyiv have been submitted. Despite their varying levels of sophistication, all the projects have been accepted by the organizers to enhance the exposure of children to science and give their tutors a better sense of contemporary research trends and methods. To this end, university- level researchers and faculty will evaluate the projects. Forum participants will also be instructed by the staff of Ukraine’s Patent Service on how to have their inventions registered and patented. And, finally, the projects will be examined by teams of experts.
With experienced researchers involved in project examination, another interesting issue is what areas have been chosen by children for their research. Environmental safety is definitely the most popular one with clean water being one major focus. Unlike adults, often including those in power, the young are concerned about how clean the water in rivers or used to irrigate fields is. This kind of concern about the safety of mother earth translates into serious environmental safety actions, research, and inventions. Thus, Kostiantyn Hodynsky, a Volodarka (Kyiv oblast) Lyceum student, designed a meter to measure the purity of liquids using light refraction theory. He called his invention a nephelometer, saying it could be used to determine water quality in the food industry or the concentration of fertilizer solutions in farming. His work, he says, is time saving, inexpensive (no chemicals needed), and makes it possible for measurements to be made at a distance. Two Kyiv students, Maryna Radchenko (School No. 257) and Serhiy Mukhinin (School No. 99) have joined forces to create an instrument based on a specific crustacean discharge to measure pollution levels in rivers, while Inna Voyevodina from the Oleksandriya College shows how to measure water toxicity using artificially bred water fleas that are very sensitive to changes in the water composition.
With standard 10% mortality for these organisms, in the Inhulets and Berezivka Rivers close to where Inna lives, tests showed a worrisome 30% rate. In another example, Dmytro Rohovsky from School No. 14 detected oil products and hexavalent chromium, a very rare metal which retards plant growth, in subsoil waters of the Oleksandriya Arboretum. Understandably, Dmytro cannot neutralize its effects himself as this would involve an expensive cleanup, but this teenager has pointed his finger at the sources of pollution, a nearby airfield and a galvanization workshop at the local aircraft repair plant. Although the sources have not been officially confirmed, the money earmarked by the government last year for conservation of polluted areas and pollution sources will help clarify the picture and preserve the Oleksandriya Arboretum.
If the hopes of Mariya Tolpina, an eleventh grader from Odesa, come true, with her assistance we will learn how to protect ourselves not only from annoying mosquitoes, but also from such a grave disease as malaria. Until recently, people used pesticides to fight mosquitoes, simultaneously killing other useful water bugs, causing decay in lakes and rivers, and eventually upsetting the ecological balance. Mariya suggests using biological weapons, such as bacilli that kill only mosquitoes and, as proven by her research, are not harmful to humans or the environment.
Quite a large number of projects deal with enhancing food quality. Anton Zahorulko from Kryvy Rih has come up with ideas on how to make the work of beekeepers easier and more efficient, while Mariya Petrova from Odesa is out to breed new kinds of wheat resistant to unfavorable weather. Ira Lamash from School No. 27 in Odesa dreams not only about increasing grain yield, but also makes confectionery from a new grade of wheat unrivaled for its exceptional softness, which makes it a remarkable input for baking cakes and pastry. So far, no one has showed any interest in growing such wheat, and cakes are made from bread wheat. By contrast, compared with bread wheat, confectionery wheat needs to have completely different properties. With just one year of tests over and four more to go on the road to a new grade of wheat, Ira is sure of complete success, something her research also indicates.
In a unique way, Yaroslav Laretsky from Odesa School No. 67 wants to cut grain losses. For the fourth year now, he has been breeding snakes and letting them out in fields. He cultivates snakes, the steppe snake included, listed in the Red Book and close to extinction because of pollution. Snakes feed on rodents and thus increase grain crops. One of the snake species that Yaroslav breeds is the Aesculapian snake, symbolizing medicine coiled around the staff of Asclepius.
Participant in the international project to study space-treated seeds, Vasyl Bauer from the Chernivtsi Gymnasium No. 2 wants to bring humanity closer to feasting on tomatoes grown from such seeds. According to Vasyl, the space-treated seeds will give better tomato crops.
Another exhibit, a mockup of a multifunctional orbiting station, Hector, catches the eye with its cosmic touch. According to its maker, Vasyl Zychkov from the Kryvy Rih Lyceum No. 3, the orbiting space station spans fifteen kilometers of the planet’s surface with its electronic eye, sending signals on fires, migration of animals, schools of fish, or emerging natural disasters.
Understandably, these research projects of the young have been guided by mature scientists who take the interests of science and the coming generation close to heart: low-paid heads of centers for young technicians and naturalists, university and research institute staff who share their enthusiasm with children with no eye to any material reward. Maryna Mykhaliova and Karyna Fadeyeva from Zaporizhzhia told The Day’s correspondent about the ways pupils are trained to implement their ideas in preparation for their future careers. Using an electrical and chemical procedure she developed, Karyna proposes her students test their psychological and physical parameters, something that can help them chose careers best suited for them. Based on test results, she has also prepared a list of matching careers. On the other hand, Maryna has developed a technique to determine the characteristics of individual thinking to help students make their choices on selecting core high school courses and future calling. The organizers want such forums to be held annually, and young participants are eager for this to happen, aware of how much in terms of experience they can get. Even if their research winds up to be reinventing the wheel, it is important is that young people are exposed to creative thinking, motivated to work, and try to be useful to society.
