Open letter.                                                       

OLYMPIAD of NSC

     This letter contains information about  scientific  contest  - 
Olympiad, which is held yearly in Chernogolovka: a small  pictures- 
que village not far from Moscow, in which  the  Noginsk  Scientific 
Center (NSC) of the Russian Academy of sciences  is  situated.  The 
contest is participated by pupils of the 8-th to  the  11-th  forms 
and consists in solving problems in physics, astronomy and mathema- 
tics.                                                              
     The Olympiad is one of interesting traditions of our  scienti- 
fic centre. It has been held for more than 25 years now on  a  more 
or less regular basis, in 1968-1980 - in winter,  than every autumn 
(in October, November or December),  and since 1998  - in February. 
The main participants  of the NSC Olympiad  are school-children  of 
the last 4 forms of Russian high schools,  i.e. aged 14 to 17.  The 
Olympiad is not only for those living in Chernogolovka. In 1991 the 
list of contestants, for example, included people from more than 50 
towns and cities of about  20 regions  of North and Central Russia, 
Latvia and Estonia.                                                
     Most of young people participating the various types of  Olym- 
piads are interested in Science and think about it as their future. 
They want to learn as much as possible  about  the  advantages  and 
disadvantages of the profession of Scientist. The main idea we  are 
pursuing in arranging the NSC Olympiad is to create an imitation of 
real everyday work of a Scientist. Of course, this is not  an  easy 
thing to do. Nevertheless our Olympiad turns out to much  close  to 
the realities of scientific work than most of similar contests (al- 
so called Olympiads) held by the Ministry of Education.            
     The scientific problems that are proposed at the NSC  Olympiad 
are, as a rule, less formal and fairly difficult. Unlike tradition- 
al "Ministry-of-Education" Olympiads, at the NSC Olympiad the cont- 
estants are permitted to use any kinds  of  manuals  and  textbooks 
when solving the problems. The problems in physics and  mathematics 
do not require any knowledge beyond the scope of school courses  in 
physics and math. The problems in astronomy require level of  know- 
ledge just a bit higher than that of an average pupil.  In  general 
as far as the level of problems is concerned, the NSC Olympiad cor- 
responds to the "Republic" stage of the "Ministry-of-Education" Ol- 
ympiads (the stages are school-district-city(town)-region-Republic- 
CIS(USSR)-International). Some of the problems in 10-th  and  11-th 
forms is in English, French, or German. It is up to the participant 
to choose the language. Naturally, he is free to use necessary dic- 
tionaries. This is again "as in real life" - science is internatio- 
nal and scientific worker now and then has to read scientific  pap- 
ers in foreign languages - Chinese, for instance.                  
     Sometimes the contestants are proposed not accurately formula- 
ted tasks, where one knows what he has got to  find,  but  a  whole 
story (as real as our life is), from which the participant  has  to 
"single out" the problems, ignoring all surplus information.       
     In some cases the second round of the Olympiad is  "creative". 
That means that the participant is proposed only a general directi- 
on of research and some starting data. His job is to formulate  the 
problem more accurately, create the model and support it with argu- 
ments, find reasonable approximations, show which  effects  can  be 
neglected and which cannot, and so on.                             
     To provide an illustration we propose to  your  attention  the 
program of the NSC Olympiad 1991:                                  
     Friday, 13th of December:                                     
          Afternoon: arrival and checking-in in the hotel.         
          Evening :  opening session and  party.  The  guests  were 
                     told about Chernogolovka, its  scientific  and 
                     nonscientific problems. Children could talk to 
                     scientists. They were acquainted with research 
                     works carried out in the scientific institutes 
                     located in Chernogolovka.                     
     Saturday, 14th of December:                                   
          First round: Participants were  proposed  4  problems  in 
                     physics, maths, and astronomy. In the 9th form 
                     the assignment had the form of a story.       
     Sunday, 15th of December:                                     
          Second round. Now participant could choose the  subject - 
                     physics, astronomy or math.                   
     Monday, 16th of December:                                     
          Closing session: Handing over of rewards  and  prizes  to 
                     the lucky winners.                            

     Our aim in writing this letter is to propose your town or vil- 
lage or  scientific centre  to take part in  the next NSC Olympiad. 
Olympiad to be held in February every year.  We are looking forward 
for your answer. Please let us know your opinion about our proposi-
tion.  If you  have any ideas  concerning  the Olympiad - subjects, 
problems etc. - we are ready to discuss them.                      

Sincerely yours,                                                   

Dr. M.G.Gavrilov, Chairman of the Council of the Olympiad.