PROJECT-ORIENTED TRAINING OF BACHELOR’S DEGREE STUDENTS IN CHEMISTRY

Surgut State University joined the CDIO initiative in June 2017 at the 13th International Conference in the University of Calgary with three Bachelor’s programs, including Chemistry. In accordance with standard 4, the discipline “Introduction to project activity” (1-2 semesters) has been introduced to the reformed curriculum. It forms the foundation for engineering practice and project activity in the field of creating products (chemical substances and materials) and systems (methods and technologies) and is aimed at learning basic personal and interpersonal competencies. In the first semester, students of a Сhemistry program immerse themselves in the theory of project activities, and in the second semester they choose the project (for example, the creation of new materials covering silicon solar cells or the development of a chemical monitoring system for plants grown in closed systems) and assemble a team. In the second year, a team of students continues to work on the project at the discipline "Project Activity". The main goal of the second stage is the advanced hypotheses confirmation (the study of the physicochemical properties of substances and materials, technology optimization) and the testing of created products and systems in real conditions. During this stage, not only do students receive new knowledge about research methods but also they get experience in analytic equipment and processing of analysis results. Thus, in accordance with the standard 5: a first and a second year student at the Chemistry program participates in at least in two educational and practical disciplines in designing and creating products, one of which performs in the first course at an elementary level, and the second one at an advanced level. Along with professional competencies, students develop their personal and interpersonal competencies (communication, flexibility, ability to work in a team), as well as increase the level of personal motivation for engineering professions in chemistry.