Oriented on making people closer

Nowadays, the issue of youth involvement in science is placed at the top of national development agendas. All over the world, great attention is paid to the quality education of the younger generation and the stimulation of its scientific and technical creativity. There is a similar mood in Turkmenistan: at the beginning of summer, the Ashgabat International School will host a science fair and a competition of innovative projects dedicated to the Science Day of Turkmenistan, which is celebrated on June 12.

The event will bring together participants aged 14-18 years. The organizers of the large-scale project are three students of the 11th grade of the AMSH with the support of the school administration. One of the organizers of the project, Aiparcha Akhmetdzhanova, told ORIENT correspondent more about the upcoming event:

— Please tell us how you came up with the idea of holding a science fair?

— Such events are constantly held in schools in the USA, and our school has also held exhibitions and fairs for many years. Every year we are given the opportunity to conduct research on a question, topic or problem from the field of STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics). We choose questions and try to answer them by conducting experiments or inventing new models to solve them. We were inspired by this opportunity and wanted to spread it more widely in our country. Therefore, we decided to launch such an initiative, timing our event to the Day of Science of Turkmenistan.

— What are your expectations?

— Since this is the first fair that we organize ourselves, we are aimed at an audience of our peers – teenagers aged 14-18 years. We would like our fair to become available to participants of other age groups in the future. We hope that everyone will want to test their strength and, using modern scientific views, uncover a particular issue relevant to society.

That is, our event is a way to express your interest in a scientific way. We hope to attract as many creative and ambitious young men and women as possible to participate.

— Tell us a little about yourself, the organizers of the fair.

— This event is organized by me and my two friends: Svetlana Sura and Meryem Allamuradova. We are students of the 11th grade of the Ashgabat International School. When we thought about holding a fair, this idea seemed too grandiose, even impossible. However, we were very serious and proposed this idea to the Committee of Scientific Fairs of our school and received consent. The administration agreed to provide the school's territory for the presentation of the project, training camps, as well as the fair itself.

— Do you have a coordinator helping with the organization?

— We don't have a coordinator as such. However, we turn to the school Science Fairs Committee for advice. Our director, Dr. Jody Burnside, supported our idea, and we are very grateful to her for believing in our strength. It may seem ridiculous that three teenagers want to hold such a major event on their own, but it's worth noting that we are also active leaders, volunteers and extremely ambitious students of our school. As teenagers, we want this exhibition to be a fun, memorable and, most importantly, informative experience for all participants.

— What distinguishes your event from other scientific competitions and design competitions?

— Distinguishes the target audience: since the participants will be representatives of the digital generation, the format will be mixed, and as entertaining and informative as possible. We will provide all the necessary online resources, as well as provide support throughout the project with the help of training camps. In addition, we will give participants more opportunities to show their creativity, as they will have absolute freedom of choice: they will be able to choose any direction they are interested in. We will focus on English, critical thinking, and we will also encourage both boys and girls to participate, teach them how to conduct research using the scientific method.

— What are the conditions of participation?

— There are only three conditions. Firstly, participants must be between 14 and 18 years old. Secondly, they can gather in teams, but there should be no more than 3 people in the group. The last condition: at least one participant from the group must speak English to present their project, as the judges will be native English speakers.

— Thank you so much for an interesting conversation. We hope for positive results of your work!

In addition to the fair itself, there are several other important points in the project schedule, namely:

— March 5, 2023: Presentation of the fair and the start of the project;

— March 24, 2023: Deadline for submitting abstracts of scientific papers;

— April 2, 2023: The first training camp;

— May 14, 2023: The second training camp;

— June 3, 2023: Preparation for the fair;

— June 4, 2023: Holding of the First AMSH Science Fair;

For questions about the event, please contact the contact details:

Phone:+99312489028

E-mail address:ashgabatsciencefair@gmail.com.

Saparguly MAKHTUMOV

Photo: provided by the organizers of the fair