Schoolchildren from the region created their own projects on food biotechnology

On August 29, at the Tavatuy country center, the children presented their work to teachers from the Ural Agrarian University.
The topics of their projects concerned both the study of existing technologies for preparing food products and the development of new ones. The schoolchildren experimented with new recipes for yogurt, bread with various additives, and also independently preparedcottage cheese , processed and curd cheese,ice cream , yogurt smoothie and studied the organoleptic and physicochemical characteristics of these products.
The project defenses were the result of the educational intensive course "Food Biotechnology", which was held in the country center "Tavatuy" on the initiative of the Ural State Agrarian University and the fund for the support of talented children and youth "Golden Section".
From August 17 to 30, 28 schoolchildren aged 14-17 from Yekaterinburg and the Sverdlovsk region learned a lot about the physiology of human nutrition, the use of microorganisms in the food industry, functional food products, genetically modified organisms and much more. They got acquainted with the technology of preparing various food products (bread, kefir ,yoghurt , cheese), learned to determine the quality of food products, as well as the biological, energy and nutritional value of raw materials, analyze and summarize experimental data, work with literature.
Classes were conducted by teachers of the Department of Biotechnology and Food Products of the Ural State Agrarian University: Professor O.S. Chechenikhina and Associate Professor E.S. Smirnova.
"The course "Food Biotechnology" is aimed at children interested in chemical and biological sciences, modern methods and techniques of biotechnology, who are participants in chemistry or biology olympiads, as well as various competitions of project work in the natural sciences. The objectives of the program correspond to the conditions of the National Project "Education". As a result of the course, the children expand their horizons, and also acquire skills that allow them to apply the knowledge they have gained when creating projects in biology, chemistry and related fields. Some of the guys later take part in the All-Russian competition "Big Challenges" in the direction of "Agro-industrial and biotechnology", - said Olga Chechenikhina, professor of the Department of Biotechnology and Food Products of the Ural State Agrarian University, Doctor of Biological Sciences.
It should be noted that the teachers of the Ural State Agrarian University are curators of several educational intensive courses for schoolchildren together with the Golden Section Foundation. They are also experts of the All-Russian competition of scientific and technological projects "Big Challenges" of the educational center "Sirius".

Text – Yulia Filimonova
Photo – Olga Chechenikhina
08/29/2023

Source: Press service of the Federal State Budgetary Educational Institution of Higher Education Ural State Agrarian University