The Republican contest “Erudite-2011” is a joint project of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Tatarstan, Technopark “Idea” and Tatar State University of Education and Humanities. Co-organizers of the Contest are the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Tatarstan, The Republican Youth Center “Selet”, The Board of Young Scientists and Specialists of the Republic of Tatarstan, the Municipal Educational Establishment Academic Lyceum named after Lobachevskiy N.I. of Kazan State University.
The primary objectives of the contest are:
to search and support creative and intellectually-gifted children;
to promote R&D activity among students;
to encourage interest in science and necessity to deepen and expand knowledge;
to attract the students’ attention to the issues of tolerance through understanding their own values;
to mould a steady cognitive activity motivation.
The Contest “Erudite” has been held annually since 2008. In 2009 the contest obtained a Republican status.
The participants of the Contest were students of secondary schools, gymnasiums and lycées of the Republic of Tatarstan. The contest had two age brackets:
Group 1 – 7-9 grade students;
Group 2 – 10-11 grade students.
The contest consisted of two rounds. Round I involved written assignments, aimed to assess school subjects knowledge and general erudition and was done by correspondence. Round II was an oral Q&A quiz where students had to answer the questions of the host. Round II was aimed at revealing logic, speed of reaction and social skills of the contestants.
In 2011 within the framework of the Contest “Erudite-2011”, Technopark “Idea” introduced a new category “Nano IQ”. The category is to increase interest in nanotechnology, nanomaterials, nanosystems, and motivate students to deepen and broaden knowledge about modern trends of the development in the interdisciplinary field of fundamental and applied science and technology.
The students had to answer 20 test questions about Nano-science and nanotechnology (the age of the students was taken into consideration). Participants who showed the most erudition in the field of nanotechnology, awarded special prizes from the organizers of high-tech category.
