Press centre

Schoolchildren from Nakhodka presented over 30 projects to the jury of the “Formula for Success” contest. The projects have the potential to improve life in Nakhodka. In just a month, the experts will announce the winners in two categories among students from grades 5-8 and 9-11. The winners will receive prizes from NFP and the opportunity to implement their projects. The organizers of the contest are traditionally Nakhodka Mineral Fertilizer Plant (NFP), the Administration of Nakhodka Urban District, and the Information and Methodological Center “Development.”

The “Formula for Success” contest for scientific research projects is being held for the third time; this year 24 teams took part in the contest. The number of participating teams has increased by a third compared to the previous year. Making such a contribution to the development of the potential of talented and active youth is an important objective of NFP’s social policy.

“Over the course of 5 months, the participants conducted experiments, interacted with specialists in their fields of interest, collaborated with like-minded peers from other schools, and visited operational plants. It’s great when education goes beyond the scope of the school curriculum and classroom. We witnessed the results during the defense of the contest projects — the schoolchildren not only want to make Nakhodka better, but they also have the ability to do so,” commented Yuri Vykhodtsev, the head ecologist of NFP and a jury member of the “Formula for Success” contest.

The participants presented their projects to the jury members, including employees from the Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Far Eastern Federal University, and specialists from NFP. The experts noted a more thorough development of the topics compared to previous years, as well as the practical orientation and relevance of the ideas specifically in the context of Nakhodka’s realities.

“All the topics are very promising. Some participants started their work following the last year’s contest, continued it in this ‘season’ and have no plans to stop. For example, students from the ‘Center for Continuous Development’ studied Lake Zolotari last year to assess the safety of recreation on its shores. This year, they explored other aspects of the same object and plan to involve divers to study the lake’s bottom. Such an approach captures the attention of the experts,” said Irina Korol, a methodologist at the Information and Methodological Center “Razvitie”.

Most of the ideas presented by the schoolchildren can be implemented in the near future, thereby making the city more comfortable for residents and more attractive to tourists. For example, students from “Leader-2” school developed a project to create an ecotrail in the Border Troops 100th Anniversary Square, a park located near their school.

“The idea came about when our biology teacher, Veronika Viktorovna, took us on a field trip to the square during our 9th grade. The goal of the trip was to create a map that would depict all the plants found in the area. However, we realized that we didn’t know a single plant. The ecotrail involves installing informational plaques with the names of trees and shrubs, as well as QR codes that link to a webpage with more detailed information about each plant,” explained the students Antonina Mozgovaya, Darina Gumenyuk, and Matvey Kalashnikov.