| Summer schools interacting with the project
SUMMER/WINTER schools of High School Science Institue of Sofia Bulgaria
The High School Students Institute of Mathematics and Informatics is established in September 2000. The founding of HSSI was one of the initiatives of the Bulgarian mathematical community in the celebration of the World Mathematical Year 2000.
Founders of HSSI are- The Union of Bulgarian Mathematicians (UBM)
- The Foundation "Evrika"
- The International Foundation "St Cyril and St Methodius"
- The Institute of Mathematics and Informatics at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences
Mission: Bulgaria has a relatively well-developed network of Mathematics and Informatics competitions for secondary school students, which allow the young people to exhibit their abilities and gifts. For more than 20 years Bulgarian high school students successfully participate in the International Mathematics and Informatics Olympiads. There are many students however, who are highly creative only if they are not "under the pressure" of the limited competition time. Some of them could become good inventors or scientists in their professional life. It is the mission of HSSI to identify such students and to take care of them developing the future leaders in science. UBM has long-standing traditions in early identification and proper enhancement of talents. Since 1980, School Sections in the framework of the annual Spring Conferences of UBM have been organized, where high school students presented their papers. The interest in these Sections shown by teachers as well as students was great. It is the mission of HSSI to keep the traditions alive giving them new spirit and new content.
The Institute of Mathematics and Informatics at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences provides a natural environment for the growth and the progress of HSSI - Library, Internet, rooms and equipment. Many collaborators of the Institute devote significant part of their free time to keep high the level of extra-curricular work with talented students.
Summer School of PhD. Study Program and Summer School of Discovery Teaching in Rackova Dolina (UKF summer school)
      
     
     
     
     
     
 
Combining activities of the international projects Primas, Comenius DynaMAT and Faculty of Natural Sciences of Constantine the Philosopher University project A-CENTRUM - Center of Innovative Education, ITMS code: 26110230026, activity 2.4. Nitra's Young Science, a summer school of PhD. study program and a summer school of discovery teaching in Rackova dolina was held on 23. -30. June 2012. The coordinator of the summer school was doc. PaedDr. Sona Ceretkova , PhD. It was attended by five lecturers, twelve PhD. students from the Department of Mathematics, two PhD. students from the Department of Physics and seven students from mathematics master studies. Lecturers were: Dr. Andreas Ulovec from the University of Vienna, doc. Paed Dr. Sona Ceretkova, PhD., prof. RNDr. Jozef Fulier, CSc., PaedDr. Janka Melusova, PhD., and PaedDr. Jan Sunderlik, PhD., from the Department of Mathematics of Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra.
The main objective of the summer school was presentation of results of works of lecturers and PhD. students with aim to strengthen our professional and pedagogical competence. PhD. students spoke about their university activities, theses and mobility they experienced. To make lectures even better, they combined their presentations with interesting activities. We had the opportunity to listen to many interesting lectures, for example about history of mathematics in Czechoslovakia; we have also expanded our knowledge about possibilities of using history in teaching algebra. We could compare the role of the student and trainee teachers in England and Slovakia during the pedagogical praxis. We were interested in the issue of the development of mathematical thinking of children in preschool and elementary school age. We also dealt with interdisciplinary teaching, conducted computer-supported physical experiments concerning uniform movement, uniformly accelerated movement and free fall. We had the opportunity to evaluate new teaching methods in mathematics, such as placemat, silent written communication, silent post and hand-out. We were solving Fermi problems, for example "What is the size of a glacier we would have to melt in order to cover the yearly water consumption in Nitra?" We took a better look at discovery teaching via two lectures, while we were also solving divergent problems and checked the ability of our inductive and combinatorial thinking. We tested which type and size of paper are we able to fold in half the highest number of times. Students appreciated the lecture about Archimedean solids connected with manipulation activities with Polydron set. We also played with infinite series.
We spent one whole day solving in groups problems of the B-day competition with the zig-zag function theme with use of GeoGebra, which we dealt with also during following PhD. lectures. In addition, every group prepared for other groups mathematical problems concerning our stay in the Western Tatras.
Our schedule was rich, but we were everyday able to find some time for free time activities (for example volleyball and films with mathematical themes). Skillful participants also made a trip to Baranec and Jamnicke lakes and a tour to the Museum of Liptov village in Pribylina. These activities were followed by deserved campfire roasting.
We would like to thank doc. PaedDr. Sona Ceretkova, PhD., for the opportunity to become more familiar with projects Primas, Comenius DynaMAT and A-CENTRUM and also the offer to participate in the summer school; we would also want to thank Dr. Andreas Ulovec for being our guest and for enriching our program with the inspiring lecture on how to make real-life situation problems even more real in order to really engage students' attention. Our thanks also belong to all lecturers and participants of the summer school. Contacts of students with the discovery teaching will continue via e-learning courses during the following academic year. However, we hope that in the not too distant future we will have the opportunity to repeat similar activities within mentioned projects.
Written by participants: Edita Szabova, Andrea Durcakova, Monika Galbava, Kristina Cafikova, Anna Hreskova
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