My first Publication 1926874721_Alumni_Magazine_June_2010 | Page 7

Issue 3, June 2010
conversations and after-class sessions.
The first clubs appeared initially with
study sessions, which an ACS classroom
could often not host..
In an annual report of one of the oldest
clubs at ACS - the Science club - we read,
“ACS Science Club
Semester Report on Activities - Spring
2001-2002
-The Science club had a very intensive
schedule just before the annual Science
Fair. The Science Department of ACS
had included the club in the program
for the day. The club members were
divided into groups and each group
had to do at least two presentations
in front of sections from grades 8
to 12. The presentations included an
introduction on the last completed
project (submitted to the Association
for Science Education, Great Britain)
on Global Warming
-The apex for the day was a
presentation given to guests (teachers,
educators, science professors, etc.)
who the Science Department had
invited to attend the fair. A computer
projector and a computer were set
up in the Science Building just for
this lecture. The activity was highly
successful and the club was thus
invited to the German Language
School in Sofia to make a presentation
to the students there.
science research program given by
a representative of GLOBE and an
officer from the US Embassy in Sofia,
who came to the ACS campus only
with that purpose. The program itself
is funded by the U.S. government.
-Subsequent meetings were held in
order to set the goals of the club for
next year. Apart from attracting new
members at the beginning of next
year, the club is planning on joining
the GLOBE initiative and thus will
conduct measurements that would
be then submitted to professional
scientists to participate in competitions
organized by the European Space
Agency (ESA).”
Currently ACS is a GLOBE school and
supports many of its initiatives every
year.
Astronomy has always been and is the
most mysterious and amazing field of
human knowledge and a great challenge
for students of all ages. The Astronomy
club gathered many interested students
and continuously unified people with
various questions and interests. A
number of accomplishments resulted
from its activities.
-Tihomir Kostadinov ‘98 - Second
place at the National round (First
National Astronomy Olympiad) in
1998
-Deyan Yotsov ’98 – among the top
ten results in Bulgaria for 1998
-Stanislav Tsanev ’04 – among the top
ten results in Bulgaria for 2003
-Peter Bakalov ‘04 - among the top ten
results in Bulgaria for 2003
-Yordan Ivanchev ’06 - among the top
ten results in Bulgaria for 2003 and
2004
ACS students also participated in web-
based competitions:
-The “Catch a Star” project started
in 2002 as a web-based competition
initiated by the European Southern
Observatory (ESO) and the European
Association for Astronomy Education
(EAAE). Its major goal was to stimulate
the interest of young people in various
aspects of astronomy. Small groups of
students (up to 3) and a teacher had to
select an astronomical object – a bright
star, a distant galaxy, a beautiful comet,
a planet or a moon -and find as much
information as possible about it, then
produce a short summary report (in
HTML format; with images and text)
about their investigation and the object,
and send it to ESO. A jury of specialists
from ESO and the EAAE evaluated
the projects. The first prize was a trip
to the site of the ESO VLT in Paranal
Observatory in Chile. In 2002, a total
-During the Science Fair, the members
of the club also received certificates,
issued by the Association for Science
Education, GB.”
It may sound funny now but in 2001
there was only 1 projector at ACS and
the PowerPoint presentation that is so
ubiquitous in teaching today was not
part of the teaching process then. So
our Science club members showed
impressive IT skills as well as great
understanding of the Global Warming
issue. The authors used data and the
competent advice of the Institute of
Hydrology and Meteorology (now
National Institute of Meteorology and
Hydrology) at the Bulgarian Academy of
Sciences.
-“Several members attended the
introduction of the GLOBE (Global
Learning and Observations to Benefit
the
Environment)
international
Alexander Kirov ’05 and Mihael Mladenov ’05 – the gold medal winners at the
Robotics Olympiad 2004 in Korea
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