The scientific basis of the Department of Valeology is the Interschool Valeological Lab. Following the guidelines of the National Program Children of Ukraine the Lab carries out considerable work in terms of valeologizing the academic process in comprehensive secondary schools and out-of-school institutions on the basis of the Center for Valeological Knowledge of Kharkiv Regional Palace of Children and Youth Creativity. This includes:
• workshops for principals and teachers of valeology,
• lectures,
• individual and group psychological trainings,
• valeological knowledge promotion among children, teenagers, and their parents,
• assistance to teachers of pre-school, out-of-school institutions and comprehensive secondary schools in the valeologizing the academic process,
• diagnostics and correction of health condition of the Palace study groups members,
• designing Health Passports for school children, students, and teachers,
• working out guidelines such as Valeological Relief of Pupils in School, We Need to Know about AIDS, Valeologist-Leader’s Textbook, Valeological Culture in Handling Computers, etc.).
The Interschool Valeological Lab has developed a Regional Program of Valeological Health Improvement, Valeological Education, and Valeological Instruction (1999), a program Cultivating Health Culture of Children, Schoolchildren, Students and Adults of Kharkiv and Kharkiv Oblast (2003).
Department Medals and Awards
For its participation in the International Salon of Inventions and New Technologies New Era (2005-2011), the Department was awarded 22 gold medals, 15 silver medals and seven bronze medals.
Honcharenko M. S. received a Diploma of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation “For the Complex of Research in Health Sciences and Development of the Children’s Health Improvement Program” (International Salon of Inventions and New Technologies New Era, (Sevastopol, September 25–27, 2008).
The Department of Valeology won the Prize of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation for the best innovation (International Salon of Inventions and New Technologies New Era, (Sevastopol, September 25–27, 2008).
The Department and the Lab’s projects find implementation and are used for health improvement of children and teenagers as developments of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine in several regions of the country (Zaporizhzhia, Dnepropetrovsk, Kharkiv, Odesa, Sumy, Poltava and other oblasts, the Autonomic Republic of the Crimea, Kyiv, Sevastopol).
Since 2000 the Department and the Lab have been holding annual international research-to-practice conferences Valeology: Current State, Directions and Prospects of Development.
The Research Valeological Lab and the Department of Valeology have become the fundamental scientific basis of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine on valeological education and children’s comprehensive health improvement. They cooperate with numerous educational, medical and other scientific institutions and valeological centers in Ukraine (Kyiv, Poltava, Sumy, Drohobych. Truskavets, Simferopol, Sevastopol, Zaporizhia, Vinnytsia) and abroad (Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Poland, Canada, the Czech Republic, Denmark).
The research and practical achievements of the faculty members and lab staff are widely implemented contributing to cultivation of a harmonious personality highly motivated to lead a healthy way of life. They have been reflected in numerous publications (over 300 individual publications, articles in scientific editions, abstracts of scientific conferences). Over the past five years the Department has published ten textbooks, six of them having the stamp of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine.