On November 23-24, 2024, the eleventh scientific session of the High-School-Students’ Institute of BAS (HSSI-BAS) at the PhD Training Centre – BAS took place in the central building of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. The event was opened by the Vice-President of BAS Corr. Memb. Evdokia Pasheva who noted how many young people had been touched by the magic of science. Regardless of who will be honored at this competition, all participants present are already winners, said Corr. Memb. Pasheva. The head of HSSI – BAS, Acad. Petar Kenderov, congratulated the participants and reminded them of the mission of the High-School-Students’ Institute – to encourage young people to explore, to present their developments and to establish links between Bulgarian education and science.
The two-day forum brought together more than 90 children from all over the country – students from 3rd to 12th grade and gave them the opportunity to present their 65 student projects. There were 53 project leaders, among which the largest group was teachers but also a significant number of specialists – representatives of BAS, SU “St. Kliment Ohridski”, Technical University of Sofia, Plovdiv University, American College of Sofia, STEALM ACADEMY, Regional History Museum in Dobrich, etc.
The students’ scientific session was held in five parallel sections: Information, Communication and Technical Sciences (24 projects); Mathematics (13 projects); Biology, Biomedicine, Biochemistry (7 projects); Chemistry, Physics, Physicochemistry (8 projects); Humanities, Social Sciences and Arts (13 projects).
The juries in the individual sections were established scientists who took into account the preliminary reviews of highly qualified specialists but above all the presentation and defense in front of the public during the session itself for the final evaluation of the projects. All participants received incentive prizes from publishers and NGOs, and the first and second place winners in each area were awarded cash vouchers, which were funded thanks to the “Education with Science” National Programme. In 2024, the activities of HSSI-BAS at the PhD TC – BAS received support under this three-year national programme. It aims to encourage the use of the considerable educational potential of the country’s scientific institutions to raise the level of school education with a view to achieving the objectives of the European Education Area.
Within the framework of the “Education with Science” National Programme, 25 Small Learning and Research Communities (SLRCs) are to be financially supported on a competitive basis and will present their work during the twelfth Students’ Science Session of HSSI-BAS in November 2025. Information on the competition for these communities can be found on the HSSI-BAS website (http://uchiban.eu).
