On 24 November, the eighth Physics Days festival, organized by the JINR University Centre, took place in Dubna. More than 180 students of forms 3-10 from Dubna, Dmitrov, and Dolgoprudny educational institutions participated in the science festival. Partners of the event included Dubna State University, the V. G. Kadyshevsky Physics and Mathematics Lyceum, and the G. N. Flerov Lyceum No. 6.

This year, the events took place at two venues, the UC building on Vavilova St. and Lyceum No. 6. The Festival programme included natural science and technical “merry-go-rounds” for students, a quiz for young physicists, and a quest. In addition, there were scientific demonstrations, an interdisciplinary team battle, and physics, biology, ecology, and robotics workshops. 15 employees of JINR and partner organizations took part in the preparation and holding of the Festival. 35 students of Dubna University and high school students of Lyceum No. 6 and the V. G. Kadyshevsky Lyceum became volunteers, mentors, and coaches at the main events. For example, teachers of the Faculty of Natural and Engineering Sciences of Dubna University organized a chemistry quiz and a minerals workshop, and college students at the university organized a robotics workshop.

Chairman of the organizing committee of the event, the UC JINR leading methodologist Petr Shirkov spoke about the peculiarities of holding Physics Days this year: “The pandemic brought some changes into our lives, so we had a break in organizing the event. While holding this year’s Days, we saw that there were much fewer children interested in natural sciences, engineering, and technical sciences after the pandemic. Last year we held Physics Days at the V. G. Kadyshevsky Lyceum. Since Lyceum No. 6 has kindly responded to the offer of the UC Director Dmitry Kamanin to host our event, we were able to organize these Days of Physics and met a new team of volunteers — high school students of the lyceum. We used the opportunity to hold an event based at another Dubna school.” It should be reminded that in October this year, Petr Shirkov became the laureate of the All-Russian Award “For Loyalty to Science” in 2023 in the Mentor category.

The purpose of the festival was not limited to simple study of physical phenomena; the organizers sought to include an element of intrigue into the world of science. They invited children not only to observe, but also to actively participate in exciting experiments. As part of the event programme, students assisted in conducting chemical experiments, solved puzzles and problems, which contributed to the formation of interest in science.