Scientists to schoolchildren

ICS-2022: projects and special courses...

The 34th International Computer School (ICS) has started in the Resort Hotel "Ratmino".

55 people took part in it: 14 people organising the educational, research and intellectual entertainment program (heads of projects and special courses, assistants and trainees accompanying the delegations of the Ust-Labinsk Physics and Mathematics Lyceum) and 41 participants - students of grades 5-11. The geography is very diverse: Moscow and the Moscow region (Dolgoprudny, Dubna, Lobnya, Taldom), Kimry, Saratov, Stavropol and Ust-Labinsk. To our regret, due to the sudden postponement of the School for reasons beyond our control, representatives of St. Petersburg and Novosibirsk, selected by competition, were not able to come.

The winners of regional competition programs organised by JINR (technical educational and competitive HACKATHON on the basics of engineering activities, the annual open regional tournament in Robotic Tournament CyberDubna), schoolchildren selected on the basis of a correspondence competition, became participants of ICS-2022.

The students of the School were offered a choice of six projects on physics, biology, mathematics, information security, applied informatics and programming, basic engineering.

During the implementation of educational, research and engineering projects, participants:

• studied the principles of physics controlling the load levelling to the surface of the planet using a parachute (project "Paratroopers");
• compiled a catalog to determine the flora and fauna of the Ratmino territory (project "Young Botanist, or What You Shouldn't Touch with Your Own Hands");
• solved two classical mathematical problems of antiquity (about homogeneous parquets and Dido - project "Surveyor");
• designed a system to keep safe a computer from information attacks (project "Protection of the Flag");
• developed a system for automatic data acquisition in the network (project "Bot - data aggregator");
• designed and assembled a catapult (project "KOTOpulta").

In addition to project activities, the participants of ICS attended special courses, where they broadened their horizons, honed their subject skills and abilities that were useful to them. The teaching load on students was about 66 hours of study time (that corresponds to a yearly two-hour course).

Intensive classes during the day were interspersed with various outdoor games, as well as intellectual team and personal competitions. Among them: sports activities, traditional for the School "Hunting for mammoths", a costumed knight's tournament that debuted this year, "What, where, when?", Natural science battle, "Guess the melody", table tennis tournaments, classical and "Swedish" pair chess and others.

On 16 July, the results of the School were summed up at the final conference, at which the participants demonstrated the results of their work in projects. A well-thought-out daily routine allowed the participants of all projects, despite a significant educational load, to successfully achieve their goals and to meet all auxiliary challanges: to design parachutes, to divide the land in an optimal way, to design a catapult, to compile a catalog-identifier of plants in the Ratminsky area, to learn how to keep their gadgets and computers safe from threats, to effectively search the network for the required information.

The success was largely due to the attitude of the students themselves, who from the first days of the School worked diligently to achieve their goals. It is gratifying to note that both the teachers of the Physics and Mathematics Lyceum named after V.G.Kadyshevsky (as part of the team of tutors and project assistants) and the students of the Lyceum demonstrated a high level in almost all activities - their share of the total number of participants was 45 percent.

In conclusion, I would like to say thanks to JINR Directorate and staff for the financial and organisational support of the School; to autonomous non-profit educational organisation "Physics and Mathematics Lyceum named after Academician V.G.Kadyshevsky" for technical assistance (equipment for experiments and robotics; computers and office equipment); as well as to sponsors - graduates of ICS: the funds allocated last year were spent on the reconstruction of the volleyball court of the Resort Hotel "Ratmino".

Petr SHIRKOV,
Chairman of the Organising Committee and Scientific Leader of ICS