The article describes physics projects created by students as future physics teachers to organize classes on the educational platform of the Children's University. The study was aimed at examining the performance of physics students through physics projects. The advantages of the Labster 3D virtual reality learning environment for motivating students to study physics are also considered. Generally, the results of the study showed an increase in interest among primary school students in STEM education and science. The study involved children from 10 to 12 years old in the amount of 250 schoolchildren in the city of Kokshetau(Kazakhstan). The article used methods such as mixed methods, questionnaires, and semi-structured interviews for children. The Likert scale questions allowed the analysis using descriptive statistics. Open-ended questions and data from the interviews were classified using content analysis and analytically interpreted through the theory of the development of cognitive interest in children. Children were provided by links to short 10-minute educational videos posted on Youtube video hosting called FIZMAT KSU While they were working remotely. During distance learning, children used different forms of virtual laboratory work. The results and conclusions of the study revealed the followings: visiting the Children's University increases children's interest in STEM - education and science, as well as the participation of future physics teachers in the activities of the Children's University forms the skills of organizing informal forms of work with children.

Numerical and experimental methods are used to investigate the aerodynamic characteristics of a laboratory model in the form of a cylinder with an active rotating element (deflector) that can be used as a working blade of a wind turbine. Numerical simulation was based on solving the Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes equations for the realizable (\(k{-}\varepsilon\)) turbulence model using the Ansys Fluent software. Experimental studies were performed using a laboratory model with a cylinder 205 mm long and 50 mm in diameter and a deflector 100 mm in diameter, which was produced based on the results of the numerical simulation. A comparative analysis of the numerical and experimental aerodynamic characteristics of the model was carried out and the aerodynamic features of the airflow around the test model were identified.

Wind energy is a commercially proven and rapidly developing type of electricity generation. Wind power plants with a vertical axis are more attractive and better suited for use in cities and urban environments where wind flow is less predictable compared to widespread wind power plants with a horizontal axis of rotation. This makes them a much better choice for both ground installation and/or for mounting on buildings and roofs that would otherwise limit the installation of higher horizontal turbine structures. The paper describes an experimental study of the drag force and its coefficient for wind turbines with a vertical axis of rotation. The object of the study is a laboratory model of a wind turbine with blades made in the form of rotating cylinders with a fixed blade. Experimental studies were carried out in the T-1-M wind tunnel, measurements of aerodynamic force were carried out using three-component scales. A distinctive feature of the work is the combined use of the lifting force of the cylinders, as well as the lifting force of the fixed plate. Due to this solution, when comparing with existing wind turbines with a vertical axis of rotation, it was found that the wind turbine in question prevails by 25‒100 % in the number of revolutions. The dependences of the drag force on the flow velocity and the drag coefficient on the Reynolds number from 1·10⁴ to 4·10⁴ are obtained. An uncertainty analysis was also carried out in order to determine the uncertainty by type A, B and the total uncertainty, from which it was found that the measurement error was 1.13 %. The field of the practical application of the results obtained in laboratory studies will be useful in the development of prototypes of wind turbines with a vertical axis of rotation