The sixth season of the National Technological Olympiad Junior (NTO Junior), part of the presidential platform, has ended “Russia is a land of opportunities”. The winners and prize-winners of the competition were 1,320 students in grades 5–7 from 69 regions of the Russian Federation.
In 2024, more than 24 thousand schoolchildren took part in the junior track of the National Technological Olympiad; in total, during the period of the NTO Junior, more than 140 thousand students from all over Russia and from a number of foreign countries were involved.
The finals of the Olympiad in 2024 were held in 57 regions of Russia. For the first time, the competition was held by 10 Russian regions: Vladimir, Irkutsk, Kaliningrad, Lipetsk, Omsk and Tula regions, Donetsk People’s Republic, Komi Republic, Chechen Republic and Trans-Baikal Territory. The largest number of finalists were in the Novosibirsk region – 826 schoolchildren, the Moscow region (697), St. Petersburg (692).
“The junior NTO track continues to actively expand, offering every schoolchild in the country who is interested in trying themselves in learning modern technologies the opportunity to do this in a comfortable format: using online tools, step by step, without complex equipment,” notes the executive secretary of the NTI organizing committee, vice-rector of the National Research University Higher School of Economics, leader of the NTI working group “Circle Movement” Dmitry Zemtsov. — At NTO Junior, competitions are inextricably linked with training. For schoolchildren of this age, when the issue of choosing a university is not yet pressing, even the Olympiad competitions themselves turn into one of the tools of the educational process, allowing them to evaluate the acquired knowledge and competencies. The number of participants, finalists, prize-winners and winners of NTO Junior is growing from year to year, the number of involved regions and mentors is growing – for us this is additional confirmation that our approach to early technological education is in demand and works.”
This year, NTO Junior participants competed in six areas: virtual reality, artificial intelligence, computer games, space, robots and habitats. The finalists in teams solved practical engineering tasks, united by a common legend. So, the juniors had to finalize the virtual reality project; train artificial intelligence – a navigator for the urban environment; create a prototype of a computer game level; calculate the location of satellites in orbit and debug the operation of on-board systems; design a security system using robotics and think through the settings of smart devices for growing plants – taking into account the needs of specific crops.
“Of the 1,320 prize-winners and winners of NTO Junior, the largest number of participants are from the Novosibirsk region (204), Moscow region (194) and St. Petersburg (173). The largest final within the country was the final of the “Technology and Robots” sector – more than 1,200 children gathered at venues throughout Russia,” noted the First Deputy General Director of the ANO “Russia – the Land of Opportunities” Alexey Agafonov. — Remotely format, the final stage was organized for schoolchildren from Uzbekistan, and we hope that thanks to this successful experience, next year the number of foreign finalists will increase – so far juniors from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan took part only in the qualifying stage.”
The compositions of the winning and prize-winning teams are published on Olympiad website. Winners and runners-up of NTO Junior will receive diplomas for a portfolio of achievements and will be included in the state information resource about persons who have demonstrated outstanding abilities (GIR), will be able to take part in other projects and competitions of the NTI Circle Movement, the “Russia – Land of Opportunities” platform and partners. The six best teams from each area will be invited to the NTO Junior Meeting, which will take place in December 2024 in the Moscow region.
Source: www.nkj.ru
