#sons2024: The national event of Bulgaria

From October 20 to 22, 2023, under the patronage of the Ministry of Education and Science (MES) in Bulgaria, the 9th edition of the National Festival "Science on Stage" was held. For the 8th time, the event was hosted by the city of Sevlievo, and the organization of the festival and its holding were mainly the merit of the teaching staff and students of the Vasil Levski Secondary School - the oldest and most prestigious school in the city.

 The festival was the selection event for the participants in the European Science on Stage Festival, which will take place from the 12th to the 15th of August, 2024 in Turku, Finland. The motto of both festivals is "Sustainability in STEM Education". At this forum, teachers from preschool and all stages of school education presented projects, which demonstrated their innovative approaches to teaching natural sciences - physics and astronomy, chemistry, biology, mathematics and information technology, (STEM) and exchanged experiences and ideas.

 The festival was opened in the Assembly Hall of SU "Vasil Levski" by Prof. DSci. Ivan Lalov - Honorary Chairman of the National Organizing Committee of the "Science on the Stage" program in Bulgaria.  In addition to greetings from representatives of several educational institutions visiting the festival, a short program was presented with the participation of students from the Theater Studio of the school.

 38 projects had applied to participate in "Science on Stage 9" in Sevlievo, and 31 showed up. All of them had stands where they displayed their work, and additionally, 10 of the projects demonstrated workshops and 11 were presented on stage. In this year's edition of the festival, teachers, children and students from 12 cities from 9 regions of the country took part, and 70 children and students took part in the festival. The great interest in the festival brought as observers teachers and, principals from kindergartens from Pernik, Sofia, Sevlievo, Gabrovo Plovdiv, Veliko Tarnovo and Stara Zagora. There was also interest from the Sevlievo public.

The stands of the projects were arranged according to the main topics set by the European program.

The projects of the teachers and their students were judged by different sections of the jury in the three categories - "Stand", "Workshop" and "Stage Presentation". The separate committees assigned grades from 1 to 5 to the projects according to the criteria set by the European Steering Committee. The chairman of the jury was Prof. Ph.D. Ivan Lalov from the Union of Physicists in Bulgaria (SFB), and the commissions were made up of professors from higher and secondary schools and scientists from the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. For the first time, experts from the Ministry of Education and Science were also included.

A special guest of the festival and a participant in the jury of stands was the teacher from France Michael Gregory, who is the ambassador of "Science on Stage France".

The jury also distinguished the performance of the students in categories determined by it: ü Special awards for: "Most Enthusiastic Young Participant", "Most Inquisitive Young Participant, "Cosmic Potential", "Best Research Work", "Interdisciplinary Expertise", "Brave experimenter", "Most convincing experimenter", "Culinary skills of the future", "Best Prototype Developer" and  "Teamwork".

Scientists from the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences /BAS/ and professors in higher education actively participated in the festival as lecturers, who gave 8 lectures, the purpose of which was to inform and popularize among the participants modern scientific achievements and events presenting the project-based approach in the classroom and extra-curricular activities in education:

 "National competition for key competencies in natural sciences" - Prof. Dr Adriana Tafrova-Grigorova, Faculty of Chemistry and Pharmacy, Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski"; "Climate changes in the Black Sea" - Assoc. Prof. Dr. Elisaveta Peneva, Department of "Meteorology and Geophysics", Faculty of Physics, SU "St. Kliment Ohridski"; “Bioelectricity in the human organism" - Assoc. Prof., Dr. Nadezhda Raycheva, Faculty of Biology, SU "St. Kliment Ohridski"; “What do we know? What don't we know? What do we want to know?" - Eng. Stoyan Vladimirov;  "Nobel Prizes in Physics 2023" – member of correspondence of Alexander Draishu, Chairman of the Union of Physicists in Bulgaria"; The first National Youth Ecoforum "For a clean environment and sustainable development" - Milena Gosheva, physics teacher, SPGE "John Atanasov", Sofia.

To motivate students to pursue careers in the field of natural sciences and their applications, for the first time, this festival also gave the floor to the younger generation who chose career development in science. The lectures were met with interest: • "Idea, concept and theory for sustainable development" by Vasilena Hristova Moneva, student II year, speciality "Geography", Faculty of Geology and Geography, SU "St. Kliment Ohridski" and "On the road between mathematics, physics and engineering sciences" - Alexandra Aleksandrova Umlenska, 1st-year student, majoring in "Mathematics", Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics, SU "St. Kliment Ohridski", and speciality "Automatics and IT" at Hemistry Technology University.

On the evening of 20.10.2023, Nasko Stamenov - chemistry teacher from NPMG, Sofia, and ambassador of Bulgaria in the European program "Science on the Stage" made an attractive demonstration of "Rockets", which contained a historical retrospective of the development of rocket engines from ancient China to the Artemis mission and explained in a fun way how we can make rocket fuel and improvised rockets from scrap materials and a little chemistry experimentation. Interesting chemical and physical experiments were also demonstrated by Michael Gregory on the last day of the festival in the Assembly Hall of SU "Vasil Levski".

Classification of the projects and awarding of their authors was also made by categories. The distinguished awards - diploma and plaque, and subject awards in the "Workshops" category were presented by Prof. Ivan Lalov, in the "Stage Performance" category by  Penka Lazarova a PR  of the SFB and of the best stands were awarded by Monika Kovačka-Dimitrova, chief project expert of the technology giant SAP and member of the Organizing Committee of the European Science on Stage program. Mrs. Silvia Stoicheva presented special awards to students for the achievements they showed in the different categories of the festival.  The teachers received certificates that enabled them to obtain credits, and the students received certificates of participation. For the realization of this festival, financial support was provided by: "Evrika" Foundation, the technological giant SAP - Bulgaria, "Workshop for Civic Initiatives" Foundation and private donors and companies. Media partners of the event are the Bulgarian Telegraph Agency, the National Publishing House "Az-Buki", the magazine "The World of Physics" and the online media NaukaOFFNews and MediaBricks.

After the festival on the 10th of November, the chairs and secretaries of the three sections of the jury in the categories - "Stand", "Workshop" and "Stage Presentation" and the chair and some members of the NSC of Bulgaria were invited at the new office building of SAP in Sofia where they identified the members of Bulgarian delegation for the European festival in Turku - 2024 and assigned the 5* projects and the projects proposed for workshops from the already classified by categories projects.  They also had the pleasure of seeing into the modern and efficient planning of the building and being introduced to the organization and activities of this modern and important international business.

The days of the festival were dedicated to the sciences and the aspiration to make them interesting, accessible and useful for all participants. At the festival, the logo of the "Science on Stage" program - "From teachers for teachers" was filled with content, as all the elements supporting raising the level of science teaching in our country were included. The teachers who presented projects had the opportunity to exchange experience and ideas for the more attractive presentation of the teaching material, as well as to increase and update their knowledge of modern problems of natural sciences.

Report: Prof. DSc. Ana Georgieva - chair of the NSC of Bulgaria