Interdisciplinary Summer School “Sigma” is being held at NSU

On July 23, the opening of the summer school “Sigma” took place at Novosibirsk State University — a free educational project that introduces school students to various fields of science. This year, participants have access to 28 courses: from programming, biotechnology, and olympiad chemistry to sociology, linguistics, cinematography, and literature.

— “Sigma” gives participants the opportunity to get acquainted with a wide variety of directions and topics. An important feature of the school is that it is a completely volunteer project. The students themselves propose courses, write programs, conduct expert evaluations, gather participants, and come up with extracurricular activities. The interaction between schoolchildren and students is very valuable — it is much easier for them to ask all kinds of questions because the distance between them is smaller than with any adult., — said the organizer of the school Marina Shapor.

The history of the school began 16 years ago in Omsk, where graduates of one of the gymnasiums decided to create an educational project that would fill what was missing in the school curriculum. In 2023, “Sigma” appeared in Novosibirsk and Tyumen, and this year the program has become significantly broader: alongside technical courses, humanities and natural science disciplines have emerged.

At the opening, the organizers told the participants about the structure of the school, the principles of teaching, and the current schedule. Every day, students can expect three lessons, extracurricular activities, and team events. In addition, the program includes a self-government day, when the participants themselves can try their hand as teachers and conduct their own classes.

According to the chief organizer of the school Tarina Iptysheva, interdisciplinarity is one of the main principles of “Sigma”:

— The most common question we hear from schoolchildren is: “What will I work as after this?” The kids worry that they need to choose a single profession as early as possible and are afraid of making a mistake. But the modern world works differently: the most interesting tasks arise at the intersection of disciplines. It is no longer enough to be just a programmer, biologist, or philosopher — it is important to be able to connect different fields of knowledge., — she noted.

Another reason for this approach is related to the rapid changes in the modern world.

— Today, artificial intelligence, automation, and new technologies are causing many schoolchildren to doubt the value of studying one specialty for several years. It is important for us to show that a person’s value lies not in a set of individual skills, but in the ability to think broadly, see connections between different fields, and constantly learn new things. That is why “Sigma” remains interdisciplinary. We want to create a space where one can safely experiment, ask questions, make mistakes, try oneself in unexpected directions, and understand that knowledge never exists in isolation., — emphasized Tarina.

The main goal of the school, according to the organizers, is the development of thinking rather than memorizing ready-made answers. To this end, participants are offered a specific set of tools. Almost every course is built around analysis, argumentation, problem-solving, and the ability to ask questions. Sometimes this happens through mathematical proofs, sometimes through the analysis of literary texts, working with data, or designing one’s own ideas. The organizers note that it is much more important to them that the participant understands how to think.

According to Tarina, the interests of modern schoolchildren are becoming increasingly broad:

— Of course, artificial intelligence, biotechnology, and programming attract great interest. But many students interested in technical sciences also attend humanities courses — in literature, art history, sociology, linguistics, and philosophy. This is a good indication that modern schoolchildren are ready to synthesize knowledge from different disciplines.