A large number of participants, tutors and experts gathered at the venue of this event. One of the experts – Alexander Leontovich, Candidate of Psychological Sciences, director of the University gymnasium of Lomonosov Moscow State University shared with us about his work and about the creation of the IRS.
— First of all, could you tell us a little information about your professional experience?
— I have been engaged in research activities for more than 30 years, mainly with high school students, as well as in Moscow schools. My professional experience is connected with the fact that we are trying to develop methods and implement forms of work with students who assimilate material through research. Thus, the children have an increased interest in the material being studied. They begin to find answers to the questions and situations posed. I think my teaching practice consist in this.
— What interests you in this work?
— First of all, I am interested in the transfer of cultural traditions, Russian and scientific mentality to the younger generation so that children really perceive knowledge, a way of scientific approach to the world, as well as inquisitiveness as a value that is the main thing in our lives. From my point of view, the main thing is to learn something and understand the interest on what you can do, earn and relax.
— What do you like about your work?
— Most of all, I like to go outside the walls of the school with the children, as for the walls of a traditional lesson, and also to conduct expeditions when they get acquainted with their homeland and other countries, but not on the Internet or in a book, but going out and studying specific objects of nature.
— How did you come up with the idea of creating IRS?
— This is due to an amazing international organization and movement promoting scientific and technical creativity — MILSET, which was created in 1987. The main idea of this movement is not to compete and identify the best, but to create an atmosphere of friendship, communication and interest in each other. We have been going to various exhibitions in many countries since 2005 and saw that the organizers create a warm and friendly atmosphere everywhere. Therefore, together we decided to start such a project in Russia, where we could invite our friends from foreign countries. The point is that the guys do not come with ready-made projects, but having gathered together, they did something interesting from scratch within 10 days. This creates a special interest and motivation between them. At the same time, a friendly international team appears in each project, which continues to communicate after the project, this contributes to the appearance of life stories. For example, a guy from Mexico and a girl from Portugal got married and became a family together.
Alexander Leontovich is convinced, that the International Research School helps not only to develop and introduce new useful projects into life, but also to unite representatives of different nationalities into a single friendly community.
Natalya Poselskaya, junkor YISG-2022
See the photo here.