SAS Students and Alumni Conducted a Sigma Science School for Students in Grades 8-11

This year, the second season of the “Sigma” summer scientific school took place in the building of the School of Advanced Studies (SAS) of TyumSU.

The Tyumen “Sigma” took over the SAS traditions from the organizers, who were students and graduates of the School. The distinctive feature of this year's scientific school “Sigma” was a humanitarian interdisciplinary approach.

A year ago SAS students and alumni united to realize in Tyumen the educational project “Sigma,” which was created by students from Omsk, striving to “infect” schoolchildren with love for learning.

Over the past year, Sigma.Tyumen has grown significantly: the number of applications for participation and courses has doubled. Students from 27 universities, including TyumSU (SAS), EUSPb, MVSES, NSU, and the University of West Bohemia in Plzeň (Ladislav Sutnar Faculty of Design and Arts), sought to pass on their love of learning to schoolchildren.

“The big surprise for the team this season was that we had students as teachers, whom we were not familiar with before and met for the first time already on the project. Every day of the season we were thrilled with the enthusiasm that the students showed in class. On the last days, they asked to extend the season, not for seven days, but for two weeks or even three months. Although Sigma is quite a small project, everyone in it feels important, and perhaps this is what attracts new people to us,” shared Nastya Volobueva, the main organizer of the event and SAS alumna.

“Sigma” has also grown in terms of content. The program of the 2024 season included 25 author's courses and five seminars covering disciplines from mathematics and finance to philosophy and art history. For example, participants attended courses on empirical experiments in physics by Anton Shumakov from the IFVE Research Institute, on political philosophy by Mikhail Stepanov from the Institute of Philosophy of the Russian Academy of Sciences, or on film analysis by Valeria Mitrofanova and Maria Sidorovich from SAS.

The organizers and teachers of the summer school “Sigma.Tyumen” were 45 SAS students.

Tarina Iptysheva, a 2nd year SAS student, shared her experience: “At Sigma, I was part of the organizing team and also taught the course ‘Rebellion in English’ about non-boring academic art. During the preparation and running of Sigma we had meetings, exchanges and reflections with organizers and teachers. With students and with colleagues we communicate on equal terms, because we pursue one goal — to share with each other our love for our chosen discipline,” Tarina said.