On 4 August 2018, the jubilee 30th Interregional Computer School named after V. Volokitin and E. Shirkova organized with the support of the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research will be held in the JINR Resort Hotel “Ratmino”.

The Interregional Computer School (ICS) is a children’s research camp where a group of people (as a rule, teachers with high experience of University work) implements an approach to education different from the common school curriculum.

The programme of the School includes educational scientific lectures, work on projects, ICS sport competitions, intellectual battles, and cinema, Mafia party game, etc at spare time. Participants of ICS-2018 will visit the Museum of the History of Science and Technology of JINR to get acquainted with the activities and history of the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research.

This year, participants of the School are offered diverse themes for projects: “Aviator” (for participants from 8 to 108 years old), “Crystals” (5-10 grade students), “Siege of the fortress” (9-13 y.o.), “Lifeguard for yourself” (10-15 y.o.), “Literature archeology” (5-10 grade students), “Machine tool building at home” (12-17 y.o.). More details are available on the ICS website.

The ICS educational strategy is built on the idea that educational process should not be hard and monotonous work; learning comes as an exciting game, an intriguing competition like solving a curious puzzle. According to the founders of the School, the successful learning is impossible without securely protected interest in that matter. As the organizers say, “We don’t give ready answers (as is customary in traditional school approach to education), but we build learning on the basis of research work of children.”

The goals of the School could be divided into three categories:

• Strategic — to develop children’s interest in knowledge in general, science and research ways of cognition of the world;
• Tactical — to introduce project-based learning — methods of self-facilitated knowledge acquisition, when the student conducts independent research, and the teacher acts as a “scientific leader”, directing the student to the desired path, but not as a “dictator” of the learning process;
• Operational — improving school performance (!) due to the appearance of intense interest in the subject.

The School will be held up to 18 August.