Popular science: The Science Days in Arkhangelsk

On 31 March 2010, another season of the Science Days Festival, a popular science project of Dmitry Zimin's Dynasty Foundation, opened in Arkhangelsk.
Famous teachers and popularizers gave popular science lectures.
Outstanding Russian and foreign scientists told the audience about unique scientific discoveries.
Mathematics, physics, chemistry, and biology teachers participated in exclusive master classes.
For the first time, the festival was held in the Russian North.

The festival program included events with different formats.

On 31 March, the scientific relay started in Mirny, where scientists and teachers from Moscow and Irkutsk demonstrated that “It isn't boring: Science as seen by passionate people.”

The baton was then passed to Arkhangelsk and Severodvinsk.

On 1 April, as part of the festival opening, a charity event was held aimed at giving schools, orphanages, colleges, and libraries of Arkhangelsk Oblast Dynasty Foundation publications in popular science—Mathematical Etudes and Moscow Time.

After that, participants of the round table “Tracked education: Blind alley or progress?” discussed the problems of preparing the intellectual elite.
Does highly tracked education lead to generating educated people? Who needs vocational tracking in high school—parents, colleges, or students? Should high school students be actively helped in the choice of profession or does it only close the horizons? What is a “good lesson” and a “good education?” These and some other questions were discussed by scientists, experts, journalists, and representatives of governmental agencies and nonprofit organizations.

The following events were presented in the “Kaleidoscope of discoveries” series:

• On 2 April, two lectures: “Comet and asteroid danger: Truth and fiction” by Sergey Yazev, astrophysicist and science popularizer, and “From Lamarck to Darwin and back: Genetic variability of bacteria” by Konstantin Severinov, world famous biologist.
• On 3 April, a popular science talk show: “Science: Myths and reality,” whose purpose was to analyze and confirm or disprove modern myths and common beliefs in society.

Fans of popular science films were pleased during the festival, as all who wanted could watch the films of the series “From Adam to Atom” with one of the most famous Russian geneticists C. L. Kisilev.

A wide program was prepared for school children.

On 1–3 April, the Popular Science Theater presented to young spectators “His Majesty, the Experiment” that revealed amazing facets of physical science.

During the same days, young people received an opportunity to participate in the spectacular intellectual show “It isn't boring: Science as seen by passionate people.” The cycle of interactive lectures in mathematics, physics, chemistry, and biology and fascinating mathematical contests, presents, and surprises impressed the most sophisticated visitors.

On 3 April, leading Russian teachers and methodologists gave master classes for mathematics, physics, chemistry, and biology teachers of Arkhangelsk Oblast. They shared their methodological experience of how best to explain problem solving to school children, prepare them for the Unified State Exam, open the fascinating world of physics and biology to them, and acquaint them with modern research and achievements.

The festival was organized under the auspices of the Ministry of Education, Science, and Culture of Arkhangelsk Oblast, the Arkhangelsk City Administration, the Severodvinsk Department of Education, the education section of the Mirny City Administration, the All-Russia state television channel “Kultura,” the Arkhangelsk State Technical University, Lyceum No. 17 in Severodvinsk, Secondary School No. 11 in Arkhangelsk, and the Arkhangelsk Center of Social Technologies “Garant.”

The Science Days Festival is a unique initiative of the Dynasty Foundation. It is oriented toward supporting and popularizing science. In the more than three years of its existence, the project has been presented in different parts of the country from the Baltic Sea to the Far East: in Kaliningrad, Saint Petersburg, Mirny, Arkhangelsk, Severodvinsk, Krasnodar, Cheboksary, Ekaterinburg, Tomsk, Krasnoyarsk, Irkutsk, Angarsk, Khabarovsk, and Vladivostok.

The interesting lecture themes, the outstanding scientists who answer questions, and the understandable presentation of the material—all this attracts people of different ages and professions to the events of the popular science festival in a format that is rare these days. Since the beginning of the project, more than fifteen thousand people have visited the events of Science Days Festivals.

In 2009, nearly 102 million rubles were allocated for project realization in the area of science and education. More than 47 million rubles was spent on science popularization projects.
The total monetary sum directed at the national science and education support and development of cultural and social relations constituted 185 million rubles in 2009.