“Sports interest plays the main role”: the teacher talks about the victories of Russian schoolchildren at international olympiads

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— The main stage of selection for international Olympiads is the All-Russian Olympiad for schoolchildren, which is held in the tenth grade in various disciplines, including physics.

Based on its results, we select about 30 people, with whom we then work.

During the year they have three training camps and two qualifying camps.

The guys also take part in various training olympiads, where they can try their hand.

At training camps, teachers are engaged with children in order to close all possible gaps in the knowledge of the school curriculum, if any.

Without fail, children are also taught the elements of the university program necessary for solving high-level problems.

Without this, it is impossible to win or achieve something at the international Olympiad.

The second important block is the qualifying events.

During their holding, we select potential participants of the international Olympiad.

We give schoolchildren tasks that imitate Olympiad ones, and see which one of them does better.

The degree of motivation depends on the attitudes of a particular student.

As a rule, we expect that the child himself will have an internal stimulus.

The Olympics are very similar to sports in this sense.

Guys with a sports mind who think about how to win, score faster and get the most points succeed in this business.

- What do participation and victories in such an Olympiad give schoolchildren, in addition to benefits when entering universities?

How many Olympiads, according to your observations, then go into science?

- Since candidates for the national team are selected in the tenth grade based on the results of the All-Russian Olympiad for schoolchildren, all of them already have the right to enter any university in their specialty without exams.

Prize-winners and winners of the International Olympiad also receive awards from the state - the award of the President of the Russian Federation and regional awards.

For example, for a gold medal at an international Olympiad, the winner receives 1 million rubles.

Of course, there is a material incentive, but the main role is played by sports interest.

Olympians are motivated kids who will excel in whatever field they choose to commit their lives to.

As for science itself, according to my estimates, about half of the children from the Olympiad environment go into it.

The International Olympiad is the ultimate goal of the Olympiad path.

The future of a graduate and an applicant is not determined unambiguously depending on his result at the international Olympiad.

In my practice, there are examples of people who have achieved excellent results, have become businessmen and scientists.

But there are also those who left the institute after the second year without completing it.

• Winners of the 52nd International Physics Olympiad IPhO 2022 (International Physics Olympiad)

• © edu.gov.ru

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— Yes, Russian Olympiads participated in the individual classification, and they appear in the table of medalists as individual participants.

The host country Switzerland acted outrageously and did something that is contrary to all the rules and regulations of the Olympiad.

It was a completely unfriendly step that did not meet with understanding on our part.

However, in the interests of the children, we decided to participate and demonstrate the training of our charges.

We provided them with all the necessary conditions for participation, translation, appeals, etc. The President of Russia sent us a telegram and congratulated the winners on their great success.

For our country, participation in the Olympiads is an important and valuable matter.

We meet with assistance and support from the state authorities, ministries, universities, departments, schools and educational centers.

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- It looks like this.

We set up several cameras that are directed from a laptop to the participants' workplace.

There are two or three more cameras that cover the entire room to monitor the entire venue.

All cameras are connected to the Zoom application, through which the organizers monitor the participants.

Also, just in case, a video recording of the entire process is being conducted.

Usually, in familiar conditions, it is more comfortable for children to perform Olympiads than somewhere abroad.

Moreover, if children write an international Olympiad in Russia, then in advance we conduct an imitation of such an event under the same conditions.

When schoolchildren already come to write a real Olympiad, they do not have the feeling of something unfamiliar, and they are more comfortable.

• © Aleksander Polyakov/Global Look Press

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- All the victories of schoolchildren at international Olympiads are the result of the existing education system and All-Russian Olympiads for schoolchildren.

About 500,000 children take part in such an Olympiad at the initial stage.

Approximately 400 people pass through the final stage.

It is a pyramid where the best and most talented children climb to the top.

Without the school Olympiad movement, supported by the state, we would not have been able to select such children and hold large-scale events.

— Is it possible to scale the best pedagogical practices and the experience of the best schools in preparing Olympiad students for the school curriculum?

— The Olympic activity is, of course, important, as it is a kind of social lift for young people.

International Olympiads are equivalent to the sport of the highest achievements.

And just as we do not expect Olympic records from people involved in physical education, we cannot teach the bulk of children the problems of international Olympiads.

In my opinion, other aspects are important that should be formed during the Olympiad movement, in which a large number of children are involved in the early stages: engineering thinking, the use of modern technologies, the ability to work in a team.

The Olympics is an individual competition, but to build, for example, an airplane, you need a team.

If such engineering teams are formed within the framework of school education, supported by the Olympiad level of training, it will be very good.

I think that we will come to this in the very near future.