Off-site regional project session of the Kurchatov Centre to prepare for the All-Russian competition of scientific and technological projects Big Challenges was held for the first time in the region February 26th through March 2nd 2021 on the territory of children's health camp Lesnaya Zastava.
Applications for the Big Challenges contest were submitted by 110 school pupils of the Chelyabinsk region. 50 school pupils from the 7th- to 11th-forms of the schools of Trekhgorniy, Satka, Magnitogorsk and Chelyabinsk actively participated in that educational intensive.
The academic staff included leading teachers of universities and schools of the Chelyabinsk region, including specialists from South Ural State University. They were 13 experienced experts in the following areas: Big Data, Artificial Intelligence, Financial Technologies, Machine Learning; Autonomous Transport and Logistics Systems; Smart City; Space Technologies; New Materials; Agro-Industrial and Biotechnologies; Modern Power Engineering; Cognitive Research; Exploration of the Arctic and the World Ocean; Genetics, Personalized and Predictive Medicine.
Specialists from the SUSU TOP 500 Advisory Centre, which worked with gifted children, were also invited to take part in the project session as experts. Nikita Bannikov and Yulia Belkova taught school pupils how to develop public speaking skills in order to successfully present their projects.
The main purpose of the session was the final preparation of students of the Chelyabinsk region to participate in the Big Challenges. The educational block of the entire period of the session was built on three modules: lectures and trainings with experts in the field of psychology and public speaking; individual consultations on projects; pre-defence of scientific works. The team of experts provided consultation of students in group and individual formats.
The opening ceremony of the session was attended by the Deputy Head of the Talent and Success Foundation, Head of the Sirius Educational Centre Aleksey Gorbachev. In live format, he addressed the participants with an introductory speech, set the children up for productive work and answered some questions.
According to one of the experts, Candidate of Sciences (Pedagogy), director of the IT-school Magnitogorsk School of Programming, Head of the Computer Science Laboratory of the Resource Centre for working with gifted children of the MAOU Academic Lyceum, Magnitogorsk, Andrey Litvin, all the school pupils are very motivated for scientific activity. The quality of the presented scientific papers is above average. The quality of the text design of scientific works is very different. Works created by school pupils engaged in scientific activities under the leadership of SUSU academics are especially distinguished.
Participants of the session are talented school pupils who previously took part in the Sirius. Summer: Start Your Project project and also versatile personalities. In addition to the main work on the preparation of projects, they showed high activity in additional creative and sports events: a business card competition, Solving Inventive Problems intellectual competition, a quiz, math karaoke, Guess the Song by Emoji and other original quizzes.
Expert in the field of Agro-Industrial and Biotechnologies, Candidate of Sciences (Agriculture), Associate Professor of the SUSU Department of Food Technology and Biotechnology Оksana Zinina shared her opinion: “Profound work in the team of experts – professionals of their field has shown that there are many smart and talented school pupils in our region. Some of them are just starting their journey in the world of science, but many of them are already self-sufficient personalities with their own life position, plans for the future and interesting projects.”
In the Chelyabinsk region this year, for the first time, the school pupils presented research projects within the Cognitive Research section. The Head of the educational laboratory, Professor of the SUSU Department of Psychology of Management and Service Activity Anastasia Kolmogortseva worked as an expert in this section.
“I would like to emphasize the versatility of the topics of the prepared projects and their relevance. Their involvement, high efficiency and motivation in achieving perfect results and developed projects made it possible to productively interact within the framework of the off-site project session. Another important feature, from my point of view, is the combination of scientific and creative activities, which allow to switch their attention in a timely manner and relieve internal tension,” said Anastasia Kolmogortseva.
As the experts noted, they were very happy to train young talents in the excellent conditions created by the organizers. It was comfortable for them to work in the modern equipped classrooms. The general atmosphere featured active interaction of school students among themselves and with the experts. The mentors expressed special gratitude to the organizers for their sensitive attitude to the participants of the session All the wishes of the experts on the organization of theoretical studies and master classes were taken into account.
According to the opinion of the members of the session, it was unique, filled with emotions and positive moments. There very plenty of interesting and informative things.
The regional centre for identifying, supporting and developing the abilities and talents of children and youth Kurchatov Centre was created on April 7, 2020 on the platform of the Chelyabinsk Regional Multidisciplinary Boarding School for Gifted Children.