On November 26-27, 2021, as part of the II Ulyanovsk Pedagogical Festival “20-30”, a popular scientific lecture and a physico-chemical quest “A scientist begins with a teacher!” with the participation of leading scientists-professors of the Russian Academy of Sciences were held at the Ulyanovsk State Pedagogical University named after I.N.Ulyanov. The event was held for students and lyceum students of UlSPU. The speakers of the lecture hall were:

• Timofey Nestik – Doctor of Psychological Sciences, Professor of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Head of the Laboratory of Social and Economic Psychology of the Institute of Psychology of the Russian Academy of Sciences (training of the scientific popularizer “Global risks and the psychological state of society”);
• Yulia Gorbunova – Doctor of Chemical Sciences, Professor of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Vice-President of the D.I.Mendeleev Russian Chemical Society, Chief Researcher of the N.S.Kurnakov Institute of General and Inorganic Chemistry (lecture “Rings for which life holds”);
• Andrey Naumov – Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, Professor of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Head of the Department of Condensed Matter Spectroscopy, Head of the Laboratory of Electronic Spectra of Molecules of the Institute of Spectroscopy of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Head of the Department of Theoretical Physics named after E.V. Shpolsky of Moscow Pedagogical State University (lecture “Photonics – vision of modern Science and Technology”, zoom conference “Teacher training in the context of the implementation of state programs for the development of science and Technology in the Russian Federation”).
• Andrey Shiryaev – Doctor of Chemical Sciences, Professor of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Leading researcher at the Institute of Physical Chemistry and Electrochemistry. Frumkina (lecture “Diamonds: from the center of the Earth to supernova outbreaks”);
• Maria Kalinina – Doctor of Chemical Sciences, Professor of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Leading Researcher at the Institute of Physical Chemistry and Electrochemistry. Frumkina, Scientific Secretary of the Scientific Council for Physical Chemistry of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

On November 27, 2021, the physicochemical quest “A scientist begins with a teacher!” took place, during which teams of participants passed stations, whose experts were young scientists of the Institute of Physical Chemistry and Electrochemistry. Frumkin of the Russian Academy of Sciences and Ulyanovsk State Pedagogical University named after I.N.Ulyanov. At each station, the participants were told about some section of physical chemistry and asked quest tasks on the topics of the station: adsorption and adsorbents, electrochemistry, corrosion processes, radiochemistry, photoelectrics, cultivation of microorganisms and DNA isolation.

Also, within the framework of the festival, a training on the development of skills for the popularization of scientific knowledge was held for students of UlSPU.

“During the quest, participants were asked to make their own battery, get DNA, get to know uranium better, look at anti-corrosion processes, and someone even put on a gas mask. The guys really liked the experiments, everyone was satisfied. Personally, I really enjoyed being a part of such a large-scale project, thanks to which I learned a lot of new and interesting things,” said Kira Kotkina, a member of the student scientific society, a student of the Faculty of Physics, Mathematics and Technology Education.

The face-to-face events were held in a Covid-free format: in accordance with the requirements, participants will provide one of the following documents: a QR code about vaccination, a QR code about a previous disease, a negative result of a PCR test. No more than 50 people were at the forum sites at the same time.