Invention patents issued to schoolchildren

On January 24, the Kyiv-based National Students’ Eco-Naturalistic Center reviewed the latest inventions and designs of Ukrainian college and school students. The students demonstrated 98 by-no-means-childish designs and research projects. These were equally seriously evaluated by experts from the State Department of Intellectual Property at the Ministry of Education and Research, the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, the Ministry of the Agro-Industrial Complex, and the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of Ukraine. Many works not only displayed an original concept, but also presented scientific and practical interest. For example, Oleksandra Yeropudova, an 11th-grader at Zaporizhzhia’s Comprehensive Lyceum No. 99, presented an express test for spotting and localizing brain pathologies. Marianna Shchoholeva (Lviv), Danylo Hulko (Ternopil), and Liudmyla Halchenko (Zaporizhzhia) were awarded the Little Nobel Prize for developing an anti-tumor antibiotic and for their environmental protection activities, including the study of soil salinity and bird monitoring. The Creator sign of honor was conferred on five participants in this intellectual competition for achievements in exploring milk protein, detergent elements in vegetative, faunal and mineral substances, for the invention of a device to retain moisture in Transcarpathian soils, and of a special feeding rack for birds. This feeder was devised by Yevhen Shapovalov, a 7th-grade pupil at the village of Kamensky, Antratsytivsky district, Luhansk oblast. The peculiarity of this feeder is that it has the properties of a weathercock. When strong winds blow, an ordinary feeding rack cannot keep the birds’ food in place, while the one designed by Yevhen always turns its protected side to the wind and thus retains the food.

Volodymyr Yakovlev, director of the Luhansk Oblast Eco-Naturalistic Students’ Center, said to The Day, “I’ve been working at the center for sixteen years, and I have seen in the past few years more and more children who begin to pursue original research at a rather early age. In addition to national and international children’s research programs, there also are special regional programs. For instance, Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts conduct research under the Feather-Grass Steppe program aimed at preserving and reviving steppes. Donetsk oblast is already considering the establishment of a twenty-hectare preserve. In Luhansk oblast, Roskoshniansk school pupils have set up two wildlife enclosures with a total area of 420 ha this year. Many of today’s schoolchildren know how to write research validity reports, possess research skills, while second- and third-year college students already write research works of their own.”

Tellingly, today’s young inventors of Ukraine have achieved such a high level that they often obtain invention certificates and even patents well before they graduate from secondary school. For example, an 11th-grade schoolgirl from Irpin was granted a patent last summer for inventing astral compasses.