Author: Aliya Ahmadova

When 2020 STEM Discovery Campaig was announced, we had already planned and implemented our first live workshop for 01.02.2020 . The tagline for this year’s campaign is “Innovative Trends in Education”, that’s why we thought and did a workshop on how nanotechnology, as innovative trend in STEM education, can be applied in schools.

What did we do?

• We added our project and activity to SDC20 activities’ map http://www.stemazerbaycanda.com
• We have reached an agreement with Baku Engineering University (in Azerbaijan Republic) to support us in SDC20.
• The registration process for the selection of teachers for the SDC2020-Training Technology Workshop, scheduled for 01.02.2020, was opened.
• 35 teachers from 12 regions who applied for registration, were selected to participate in the new content- Nanotechnology workshop, which was held for the first time in Republic of Azerbaijan.
• The planned workshop was mainly organized and managed by Aliya Ahmadova, STEM PD Ambassador for Azerbaijan.
• Finally we promoted all this procces in our project’s Facebook page.

Opening the seminar, BMU Vice-Rector for Scientific Affairs Prof. Elchin Suleymanov spoke about the differences in the STEM education strategy of foreign countries, the advantages of this method in general and wished success with the seminar.

Farida Abbasova made a broad interactive presentation on how to bring AR, VR and MR applications to classrooms in multidisciplinary areas, and worked on a practical example.

Aliya Ahmadova, Ambassador of STEM PD for Azerbaijan, made an interactive presentation on “Nanotechnology in the teaching process”.

For the first time, a workshop on contest Nano was successfully held with teachers. Fidan Ahmedova, a physics teacher from Siyazan city Secondary School No. 1, who leads the STEM activites won the sympathy nomination with her presentation “My STEM experience at my school.” At the end of the seminar participants were given the certificates.

Teachers of secondary schools in Balakan, Zagatala, Mingachevir, Ganja, Guba, Siyazan, Gobustan, Shirvan, Lankaran, Khirdalan, Baku and Sumgayit cities, as well as from the Institute of Botanics Institution of ANAS, ADA, ASPU, STEM Education LLC showed interest in the seminar.

Are you interested in the extraction of human DNA?

Worksheet for human DNA extraction
Accessories:
• 2 plastic cups and teaspoons
• 100 ml water
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 5 teaspoons dishwashing liquid
• 2 drops of pineapple juice
• 2 teaspoons alcohol
• Medical gloves and laboratory glasses

Progress:
• Add 25 grams of water to the 1^st glass, shake the water well in your mouth in the direction of your cheeks for 2 minutes and spit it to the glass.
• Add 1 teaspoon of salt to the same glass of water and mix well.
• Add 50 grams of water to the 2^nd glass, add 5 tablespoons of dishwashing liquid and mix well.
• Add 2 tablespoons of shampoo water to 2 cups of salt water and mix slowly and well.
• If there is a test tube, start the solution; if not, let the resulting solution remain in the 1^st glass.
• Add 2 drops of pineapple juice to the flat, shampooed solution in the 1st glass and mix slowly.
• Slowly pour 2 teaspoons of ice-cold cold alcohol into the saline, shampoo, and pineapple juice solution in the 1^st glass, no need to stir.
• Wait 1 minute without touching or shaking the final solution in the 1^st glass.

Sedimentation or stratification is observed in the solution. The whitish part closest to the surface of the test tube is your DNA from your cheek. Take this sediment with a wooden or bamboo stick and try to observe it under a microscope.