My first Publication 1926874721_Alumni_Magazine_June_2010 | Page 8

Issue 3, June 2010
of 134 projects were accepted, 30 from
Bulgaria, 3 of which were from ACS.
The prizes were won by lottery.
-Project “Vesta” by Marina Marinova,
Tsvetelina Nacheva and Margarita
Petkova (from the class of 2003) won
the 4 th prize in 2002
-Alexander Shpatov, Kaloyan Todorov,
and Stefan Videv (from the class of
2004) participated in 2002 with project
“Asteroid Belt”, and in 2003 with
“Interacting Galaxies”.
In 2003 two national web-based
competitions started. Their main
goal was to stimulate creativity and
independent learning.
-„Ловци на небесни съкровища”
(“Hunters of Sky Treasures”) was
focused on astronomy. ACS participated
in 2003 and 2004 with 8 projects
altogether. Bozhdar Karanovski, Elitza
Katzarska, and Nikolay Kostov (from the
class of 2006) won the 3 rd prize in 2004
with their project “Aurora Borealis”.
-„Физиката в моите очи” (“Physics in
My Eyes”) was focused on physics. ACS
participated in 2003 with 6 projects. Alek
Andreev, Kaloyan Kanev, and Vesselin
Pissarev (from the class of 2004) with
their project “Law of Conservation
of Energy” won the 2 nd prize in 2003.
Alexander Shpatov, Kaloyan Todorov,
and Stefan Videv (from the class of
2004) won the 3 rd prize in 2003 with their
project “Projectile Motion”.
The Ecology club has always been
part of the Science club and periodically
existed separately. A number of
activities in our community addressing
environmental and ecosystem problems
were initiated and plenty of speakers
were invited. Currently the Ecology club
is active again.
The Science Department is determined
to support our students in choosing
and attending various science oriented
summer programs. As a result of the
work done and experience accumulated
in the Sci Tech program in Haifa,
Israel we have several students with
international acknowledgement.
Alexander Kirov and Mihael Mladenov
(class of 2005) participated in the
program in 2004 during which they
worked on a project about robots. The
The ACS team achieved the third prize at the IYPT 2005 in Switzerland
tutors were so impressed with their
work that they suggested that the boys
should participate in the 6 th International
Robotics Olympiad and even helped the
team financially. In Korea Alexander and
Mihael did even better: they won the first
place on the Robotics Olympiad 2004. After
working at Sci Tech, Nikolay Kostov ‘06
developed a project that won first place
in the country selection for the Young
Scientist Competition in 2005. Last year
another ACS student won first place and
went to the international competition
in Paris – our recent graduate Vassilina
Tatarlieva ’10.
Another remarkable achievement was our
teamwork in the International Young
Physicists Tournament (IYPT).
This competition is unique in several
ways. It requires a combination of high
theoretical background, experimental
skills, and the ability to present and
discuss solutions for physics problems.
Every year, 17 competition problems
are preannounced on the Internet. Each
problem is a topic of a small investigation
including
bibliography
research,
experimental work and data analysis, and
building a theoretical model. In 2003,
physics profile students accidentally
learned about the competition and in
a short time prepared some problems.
Applying all their best skills that were
taught at ACS, not only in science but
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also in other subject areas, they ranked
first in the country and represented
Bulgaria in the world competition in
Sweden. Amazingly, for three more years
our teams were the best and we took
part in the Bulgarian team in Australia
2004, Switzerland 2005, and Korea 2007,
pushing our national team up from the
bottom of the ranking list to number 14
in the world and achieving third prize
twice - in 2004 and 2005.
Our article will not be complete without
writing about one of the longest
traditions at ACS – the Science Fair.
The first installment of the fair was held
on a Saturday in 1996. During the years,
the Science Fair became more and more
popular among the students and logically
now we carry it out during a school day.
The format of the fair has changed
over the years – the organizers from the
Science Department have always tried
to offer the most favorable options that
will keep the interest of all participants:
students and teachers, as well as the
guests. At first, the fair contained only
science competitions. Later, students
started working on projects from
different fields in science and presented
them during the fairs. Five years ago,
students working on projects were
required to also carry out and report
on an experiment, thus showing a more
profound research approach to their