OMNIVEDA Foundation

OMNIVEDA Foundation is an NGO established in Wrocław, Poland in 2014. We belong to Omniveda Group, which serves around 14,000 kids in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland. Our main goal is to initiate, support and lead educational activities that promote science to elementary school children. Moreover we aim to support broader societal development with an emphasis on children and youth. We realize these goals through: science clubs, educational events and workshops that help kids use their knowledge in practice and boost their creative thinking. We also help teachers to develop new skills and ways of thinking about science, and show how to teach science in an innovative way. Omniveda Foundation has extensive experience in working with kids on educational programmes. In the 2018/2019 school year alone, we worked with more than 1000 children from elementary schools in Wrocław at science clubs and summer camps. Our main project is called “Science is fun”. Within the framework of this project, children perform science experiments in order to better understand how the world around them functions. These experiments consist of a mix of chemistry, biology, physics and Earth sciences. The children conducti the experiments themselves, which introduce them to new problem-solving methods and help them to search out answers to the questions that arise in their heads about the world around them. The lecturers that lead our science clubs are trained to use innovative and practical approaches to learning. Throughout the year they take part in a series of trainings on the experiments to be used in our science clubs, and on methods of working with kids. We also support new lecturers with “coaching”, when we attend and observe their club in order to give feedback and determine whether they are struggling with anything. New lecturers also receive coaching from more experienced lecturers. In this way, and through our trainings, lecturers meet and learn from one another, exchanging good practices. On the local level we cooperate with the University of Wrocław, which supports our clubs and summer camps. In 2015 an agreement was signed between both parties where we agreed to work together to promote science. Omniveda Foundation was also given a recommendation from the head of the Wroclaw Department of Education. During the school year we cooperate with around 45 schools in the city, participate in family picnics organized by the city, and organize a science fair on Children’s Day at the city's Sport Stadium. Within the Erasmus projects framework we have special partnerships with local libraries, senior clubs and other Erasmus+ organizations from Wrocław like Brave Kids and Prom. In 2019 our Erasmus+ volunteers organized workshops about the history of Poland after 1945, which were open for both city residents and local Erasmus + volunteers. The final event within the project framework was held in the library for two chosen schools, where our volunteers conducted their science classes titled “Kids teach kids”. At that event children demonstrated what they have learned and presented their experiments to other groups. On the international level we cooperate with our partners from Omniveda Group in the Czech Republic, with Erasmus+ partners from Italy (Vicolocorto) and Spain (Xeracion) since 2016, and from Georgia (CYNC Tbilisi) since 2018. In July 2019 we hosted two German volunteers from the Prom organization, who were observed our summer camps and contributed to the programme with games about space and animals.