The event brought together representatives of Ukraine’s scientific and educational communities – including educators and leaders of STEAM initiatives from Kyiv, Kropyvnytskyi, and Odesa – as well as international partners from Belgium and Poland.
Stanislav Dovgyi, President of the JASU, opened the session with a welcoming address, highlighting the importance of international collaboration in science education and the promising future for STEAM initiatives in Ukraine. He noted: “Road-STEAMer has opened up new opportunities for integrating Ukrainian institutions into the European educational landscape, starting with identifying exemplary STEAM practices for inclusion in the project’s map.”
Annalisa Addis, Project Coordinator from the Lisbon Council (Belgium), presented the key findings of Road-STEAMer. Her presentation covered the project’s core objectives, its scope across ten countries, and the criteria developed for mapping and evaluating STEAM practices. She emphasised the significance of Ukraine’s contribution to the project outcomes and its particular relevance to the country’s current context.
Vasyl Dunets, Deputy Director of NC “JASU”, Denys Svyrydenko, Head of the UNESCO Chair on Science Education at Mykhailo Dragomanov Ukrainian State University, Maksym Halchenko, Director of the Institute of Gifted Child at the National Academy of Pedagogical Sciences, Nataliia Polikhun, Head of the Giftedness Support Department, the Institute of Gifted Child, NAPS, and others shared their experience and the new opportunities the project opens for advancing STEAM education in Ukraine.
Representatives from schools and educational initiatives featured on the Road-STEAMer map of STEAM practices also participated in the round table. These included the Taras Shevchenko Lyceum (Kropyvnytskyi), SmartKids Online / Knowledge Box (Odesa), the Futurum Children’s Academy (NC “JASU”, Kyiv), and the GIS and Remote Sensing Laboratory (NC “JASU”, Kyiv).
In conclusion, the participants highlighted the relevance of the Road-STEAMer project for Ukraine. In particular, they underlined that the outcomes will contribute to strengthening STEAM education programmes, reinforcing their importance in the current context, enhancing teacher professional development, and raising public awareness of STEAM. More detailed information on the project results can be found here.