On 3 – 19 August 2017, the 29th 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. 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. In our paradigm, there is no explicit and precisely defined opinion of the teacher – there is the project manager acting as the supervisor, and nothing more. No strict plan and textbook — like any real research, the project may swerve wherever participants would see fit at any time.”

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 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 meter.

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.

Courses for secondary and high school: “Modern informational environment – the ICS blog”, “Programming fundamentals”, “Programming professional”, “Mathematical bases of computer graphics and robotics”.

Projects for elementary school: “Robotics fundamentals”, “Whirlpool”, “Planet of three-leggeds” or “Game boards” (optional) – children choose 2 or 3 of the project (it depends on whether they are at School only in the morning or full day). Projects for secondary and high school: “Ball” (Fundamentals of physical experiment and simulation), “Indicators” (Chemistry), “Self-propelled vehicle” (Robotics), “Photo camera” (Assembling) – participants choose only one project.

It is also expected, that on one of the off days, senior students will visit JINR with an excursion tour, and for junior students a spectacular nitrogen show and entertainments will be arranged.