This spring, the Museum of History of Science and Technology JINR held the “Mendeleev readings” educational campaign for the ninth time. The schoolchildren aged 9 – 13 made presentations on biology, physics, chemistry, ecology, mathematics, or at the nexus of these disciplines.

The readings were organized in two stages, on 25 March and 1 April. There were 11 interesting presentations in total. Remarkably, some of the speakers are younger siblings of the former participants of the “Mendeleev readings”. The schoolchildren chose various topics of reports, e.g., “Big problems of the little penguin”, “Chemical battery”, “Is fruit juice that fruitful?”, “Vitamins are our friends”, “A glass of milk a day keeps the doctor away”, “Magnets around us”, “Rhythms of life. Biological rhythms of living beings”, and this is only part of the topics. Some of the participants went beyond the usual photo and video format and demonstrated quite original experiments. The performances of the children evoked vivid interest among the young audience, and speakers were asked numerous questions. All the participants of “Mendeleev readings” received diplomas and memorable prizes from JINR.

In addition to the performances of the participants, the programme of the event included experiments and a brain ring. The series of experiments on the topic “Physics and chemistry in the kitchen” by the JINR employees concluded the first stage of the readings. The young audience was particularly impressed by the dyeing of colourless mixtures with red cabbage decoction, fork balancing, the attraction of oat flakes to the balloon, and spectacular experiments with liquid nitrogen. The intellectual brain ring dedicated to food and cooking concluded the second stage of the readings. Three children’s teams and one parent team participated in the game. The schoolchildren answered most of the questions correctly.

The idea of the “Mendeleev readings” scientific and practical conference formed in the year of the celebration of the 175th anniversary of D. I. Mendeleev. The aim of the organizers of the Readings is to give schoolchildren who are interested in various scientific phenomena an opportunity to make presentations on them in a vivid, informative, and entertaining way. In addition, to help the children develop curiosity and get them interested in scientific research.