News of the JINR UC

Project-based education seminar for future teachers

On 5 - 17 July, the 36th International Computer School, organized by the JINR University Centre for schoolchildren and students, was held at the JINR Resort Hotel "Ratmino".

This year, the special feature of the ICS was the educational and methodological seminar "Simulation and Education" that preceded the School and was held on 1-4 July. The event was held in the format of master classes for students that are going to become teachers. Students of the International Computer School of previous years took part in the seminar as mentors. The leading methodologist of the UC, Scientific Leader of the ICS Petr Shirkov spoke about the work of the seminar.

The seminar organized by JINR revives the traditions of the early 2000s, when such training sessions were held for future project mentors before the beginning of each ICS. According to the organizers' plan, the tested model of a kind of advanced training will act as a prototype for a new JINR programme concerning the enhancement of subject competencies in physics, mathematics and information technology of students from partner universities that intend to relate their professional activities with pedagogy.

22 students of the Physics and Mathematics and Information Technology Departments of the North Ossetian State University, Far Eastern Federal University, Kamchatka State University and graduates of the Physics and Mathematics Lyceum named after V.G.Kadyshevsky took part in the seminar. For this team, mentors that have more than once participated in schools and have significant experience in implementing research and engineering design projects organized courses to improve pedagogical skills. During intensive training in the format of full immersion in project activities, over four working days, the programme participants created the content of future educational research and engineering design projects that they will implement together with the school students.

"Directorate of the UC, represented by Director Dmitry Kamanin, understanding the importance of training personnel for science-intensive areas and projects, formulated the idea of a new educational programme for future teachers of physics, mathematics and information technology, using the scientific potential of the Institute and experience in organizing and implementing educational research, educational methodological and educational programmes for both teachers and students. We are talking about early, at the level of junior courses, immersion of students, future teachers in educational methodological and educational engineering programmes using both methods of traditional pedagogy and approaches based on advanced psychological and pedagogical approaches, including the methodology of simulation," Petr Shirkov emphasized. Scientific Leader of the ICS explained that this is the approach that has been used for more than 35 years at International Computer Schools, on the one hand, to involve children, teenagers and young people in the field of advanced science and technology, on the other - to practice methods of education based on project-based learning of research and engineering design activities. The approach has been more than once used not only in various forms of education, but also in the training and retraining of teaching staff.

The participants of the preparatory seminar had the opportunity to learn about the features of the new educational paradigm from the inside in a real educational process. The university students came up with the intrigue of the projects, defined the goals and objectives, selected the necessary tools and designed experimental facilities. The seminar participants also carried out experiments demonstrating the relations between the measured characteristics of the observed processes and phenomena, for example, the transformation of energy from one type to another and its conservation in an isolated physical system and generalized the emerging patterns, developed the content of the subject activity and a dictionary of the main terms used. At the same time, the content of the subject was not divided into a set of isolated topics according to the principle of a school textbook, but in practice, demonstrated their interrelation. Thus, the key school disciplines were restored to their systemic relation and the content of the programmes was ahead of the requirements of the Federal State Educational Standards (FSES) for students of a certain age, taking into account the proximal development area of students.

The defense of five meta-subject projects in physics, mathematics and technology, including information technology was held on 4 July. Also, within the framework of the seminar, young JINR scientists shared their experience of holding the Physics Days festival at the UC. The seminar included introductory lectures given by the founders of the pedagogical are being described Professor of the Dubna University Vadim Khoziev and the leading JINR methodologist Petr Shirkov and an excursion to the NICA accelerator complex that was conducted by a researcher at the LHEP Dmitry Dryablov.

On 5 - 17 July, future teachers used the methodological material they had developed when working with students at the ICS.

JINR Press Office,
Photo by Igor LAPENKO