Within the framework of the Yakutsk International Science Fair MILSET Expo-Sciences Vostok 2018 the traditional game «geocaching» was held. It is aimed at enabling participants to better understand the city in which they arrived or in which they were born. In MILSET, 96 most capable children from all corners of the world participate and representing projects that can change our world for the better.
Tatiana Volpi, Executive Director of MILSET, about the game:
«Geocaching is a kind of search for treasure. The essence is this: you get tasks, go to the object, execute it then move on. For example, we need to calculate the number of windows in one building, and in Yakutsk we decided to prepare questions about the culture of the Sakha people. We tried to divide the children from one delegation into different teams so that they could get to know the other participants. The guys themselves are building their route on the map. The goal of this game is to get acquainted with the city in the form of an independent excursion. »
Sardana Popova, Ekaterina Moiseeva, Gavril Sleptsov were among the first to offer geocaching in Yakutia. They themselves visited different places and searched for the kapa for checkpoints. The organizers play the game for two hours, and the participants this year coped for two and a half. The first three teams were awarded books on the linguistic features of the Russian.
Irazema and Aleida, Mexico
What are your impressions of the game? What have you remembered most?
The organizers who accompanied us were very kind and brightened our time during geocaching. Most of all we liked the architecture of Yakutsk, because in Mexico buildings are completely different. I want to note that there are a lot of beautiful flower beds here.
Are you confident in your project?
To be honest, victory is not what we came for. Our main task is to tell a large number of people about the benefits of our work.
Tell us about your project at the exhibition.
In Mexico, many kinds of high schools, and in our school we learn through different programs. We have chosen the training program in the laboratory. Our main subjects are those sciences that reveal the curtain of the secrets of nature. The problem of our project is that students are forgetting most of the topics, and teachers have to explain the same topic several times. In the end, you do not have as much knowledge as you might possess. Therefore, we developed our own system. First, they gathered all the information that children of our age should know and divided it into five areas: anatomy, dermatology, parasitology, immunology and bacteriology. There are three levels of training, after completing the educational process at each level, you must pass the test to go to the next level, but in case of failure, you will have to learn topics for questions you could not answer.
What did you expect from coming to Yakutia and from games in general?
First of all, we expect a lot of acquaintances from games, because communicating with new people only gives us positive emotions. Before, we did not leave the borders of our country, so the experience of
participating in the MII for us is exciting. If we talk about stereotypes about Yakutia, then we expected that there will be snow here, but, as it turned out, it is very hot here.
How do you communicate with other guys?
To be honest, it’s a little uncomfortable because most of the participants are Russian speakers, and they always communicate with each other in Russian. Because of this we are trying to find and make friends with people who speak English.
In your opinion, do you promote the development of relations between Russia and Mexico?
We do not understand international relations and politics, but we believe that there are no boundaries for friendship and it does not matter where you are from. Mexico loves everyone!
The organizer of the exhibition MILSET in Yakutsk Daria Walter stressed that participation in international competitions is a great opportunity to see new places, travel, meet different people and share scientific experience.