Developing students’ functional literacy through experimental and research activities in chemistry
On November 12, 2025, Örken East Kazakhstan Regional Scientific and Methodological Center for Informatization and Education Development of Education Administration of East Kazakhstan region held a Zoom webinar.
The topic of the webinar was “Developing students’ functional literacy through experimental and research activities in chemistry.”
Speaker: Olga A. Ovchinnikova, a teacher of chemistry of Nazarbayev Intellectual School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics of Ust-Kamenogorsk city.
Olga A. Ovchinnikova explored relevant approaches to the development of functional literacy by engaging schoolchildren in experimental and project-based research activities.
The presentation featured:
- theoretical foundations of functional literacy in chemistry;
- criteria and indicators for assessing functional literacy;
- a task bank with different levels of complexity, focused on real-life situations;
- examples of integrating experimental activities into curricular and extracurricular activities;
- stages of organizing student research projects (from problem formulation to public presentation);
- specific cases of successful projects of students from Nazarbayev Intellectual School who won prizes at national and international competitions.
The speaker paid special attention to the methods of assessing functional literacy: from traditional question tasks to situational tasks requiring the application of chemical knowledge in everyday life (food composition analysis, regional environmental issues, household chemistry safety).
All webinar materials (presentation, handouts, recording) will be posted on the platform of the Örken Center for teachers of the region to have free access to these materials.
The event was an important step in implementing the regional program for professional development of teachers of natural sciences and contributed to the exchange of best practices between urban and rural schools of East Kazakhstan region.
We extend our sincere appreciation to Olga A. Ovchinnikova for a fruitful and inspiring master class!