On 23 June, the results of the first All-Russian Olympiad for Physics Teachers, League of the Best, were announced at the site of the Russian Knowledge Society at VDNH (Moscow). The Olympiad was organized by the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, National Research Nuclear University MEPhI (NRNU MEPhI), Rosatom, Kurchatov Institute, and the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS).

Upon greeting the participants, JINR Director, RAS Academician Grigory Trubnikov emphasised that schoolteachers lay the foundation of education of highly qualified engineering and scientific personnel. “Teachers forge the path to the success of big science. You are shaping the minds of future scientists and innovators,” he noted.

The Olympiad aims to increase the prestige of engineering education and the quality of physics teaching in Russian schools, which is especially important at a time when the country is facing the task of achieving technological sovereignty.

Following the results of the Olympiad’s final rounds, 10 winners, 20 runner-ups, and about 90 laureates from different regions of Russia received awards from NRNU MEPhI Rector Vladimir Shevchenko, Special Representative of the JINR Director, Academician Boris Sharkov, and Research Advisor of the Russian Federal Nuclear Centre, Academician Georgy Rykovanov. It was noted that all the finalists of the League of the Best are expert guests at strategic sessions and conferences aimed to determine ways to modernise physics teaching.

Vladimir Shevchenko congratulated the winners and wished for them to teach highly motivated students. In his speech, he referenced Plutarch’s dictum: “A student is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled .” Boris Sharkov recalled the continuation of the saying by a Soviet teacher Vasily Sukhomlinsky: “It takes the teacher’s spark to kindle the fire!”

Head of the Department of Development of UC JINR Educational Programmes Yuri Panebrattsev presented a new set of advanced physics textbooks for grades 7-9 entitled Physics. Engineers of the Future, created with the participation of JINR, MEPhI, and Rosatom. The set is included in the federal list of school textbooks and an expanded educational and methodological complex.

The All-Russian Olympiad for Physics Teachers entitled League of the Best is part of the complex modernisation of physics teaching in secondary schools under the auspices of the National Research Nuclear University (member of the Rosatom Partner Universities’ Consortium ) together with Rosatom, Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, Kurchatov Institute, and the Russian Academy of Sciences. MEPhI is currently overseeing complex modernisation of physics teaching in schools.

Photo: © NRNU MEPhI