Online “Phoenist”

In Nizhny Novgorod, from September 28 to October 5, 2020, the XII festival of sciences, arts and technologies “Phoenist” was held, for the first time in the online format.

The festival of sciences, arts and technologies “Phoenist” is undoubtedly one of the main popular science events of the year. For many years it has been traditionally held in the fall, in the last week of September, and 2020, despite the pandemic, was no exception. The main organizer of the festival - the Federal Research Center "Institute of Applied Physics of the Russian Academy of Sciences" (IPF RAS) - attracts leading universities, scientific institutions, schools and a number of cultural centers of the city. The festival is designed not only for schoolchildren, students and beginner scientists and engineers, but also for all those interested in scientific discoveries and modern technologies, including in the field of art.

The “fenist” unites those who are eager to gain new knowledge from the firsthand, and those who are happy to tell about their favorite business and inspire listeners to search for answers to questions about the world. As in previous years, the festival program (it is published on the pages of the “Phoenist” in social networks [1]) is extensive and covers many topics. Among them are astrophysics and chemistry, biology and medicine, applied mathematics and computer technology, psychology and linguistics. Everyone can find lectures on interests, participate in scientific discussions and ask questions to famous scientists, engineers, experts in various fields and popularizers of science - from members and doctors of the Russian Academy of Sciences and professors of Russian universities to famous scientific journalists and leaders of "intellectual" companies. It is worth noting that all lecturers and experts who performed at the festival responded to the invitation at the first call and did not require any rewards for their hard educational work.

This year, due to restrictions related to the epidemiological situation, most of the festival events were first held in the format of interactive broadcasts. Preliminary information about the planned events was distributed mainly on social networks and on the sites of co -organizers, including the largest regional universities - classical NSU named after N.I. Lobachevsky and Technical NSTU named after R. E. Alekseeva. Lectures and scientific dialogs immediately became available on the YouTube channel of the “Phoenist” [ 2 ]. Directly during the festival, more than five thousand participants watched them, in a month the number of views increased more than doubled, and, according to the experience of past years, over a year it will increase several more times. In addition, employees of the Nizhny Novgorod Planetarium named after G. M. Grechko, led by Associate Professor NGPU named after K. Minin Nikolai Ivanovich Lapin was provided by interactive remote observations of the moon and planets of the solar system with comments, they were watched by hundreds of astronomy lovers. The exceptions of the online format were the days of scientific cinema in the Loft Cinema Loft space, organized in conjunction with the enlightenment movement of Funk. Visitors to the festival watched the documentary films “Passion on the Particles”, “Alfago”, “More than Honey” and took part in their discussion with invited experts.

The organizers of the festival have prepared a special program for schoolchildren of the city and the region: online lessons from the leading popularizers of science F. Aleskerova, I. Ivanova, V. Surdin, T. Gartman, D. Anreyuk in mathematics, physics, astronomy, Russian language and social psychology. Tens of classes of various educational institutions participated in them at the same time. For those who wish in individual schools, the tournament “What? Where? When?". In the organization of the school part of the program, the main support is the unchanged partner of the “Phoenist” - the Association of Teachers of Physics and Astronomy of the Nizhny Novgorod Region, headed by the Russian People's Teacher Lev Vasilievich Pigalitsyn, Honored Teacher of Russia Tatyana Yuryevna Yuryevna Kuzmicheva and a researcher at the IPF of the Russian Academy of Sciences, part -time working as a school teacher of physics, Andrei Olegovich Perminov.

The direct organizers of the festival are young researchers who voluntarily participate in the work of the Nizhny Novgorod Scientific and Educational Center “Knowledge-NN” under the IPF of the Russian Academy of Sciences, led by Art. scientific. sore. Mikhail Evgenievich Viktorov. It is they who create a living, relaxed atmosphere of friendly communication of people who know and wise science with people who want to gain knowledge and open to them. Several “old-timers”-enthusiasts help them in this, including the Higher School teacher Yuri Evgenievich Baevsky, he began the organization of the first festival of this kind 12 years ago.

In recent years, the number of direct participants in the “Phoenist” was about 10 thousand people, however, due to the wide availability of YouTube broadcasts, it was actually much more. This year, despite the online format of the festival, it turned out to be just as popular. As before, the scientific discussions of scientists and popularizers of science and technology, in which the listeners could directly participate, the online format, undoubtedly contributed to such dialogues, aroused particular interest.

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This year, the Institute of Applied Physics of the Russian Academy of Sciences applied for participation in the competition of the Prize "Communication Laboratory". For four years it has been conducted by the Association of communicators in the field of education and science of axon among the press services of scientific organizations.

IPF RAS presented the results of the 2019 Phoenist festival and took the 1st place in the “Experiment” nomination, which is awarded for the best popular science events [ 3 ].

Vladimir Kocharovsky,
Chl.- ​​Corr. RAS, head. Department of IPF RAS