Recently, GZAAT students have been informed about the idea of an online math and science journal. The goal of the journal is to publish and share research done by our students. This journal sounds not only fascinating to read, but it also opens whole new possibilities for our students to broaden their skill sets and to become published researchers! To find out more, I decided to interview the organizers of this journal: Dato Shapakidze and Irma Chelidze.
Irma Chelidze: The main goals of this initiative are following
To encourage students to do in-depth research and write about topics of their interest from math, science, economics, etc;
To help students identify problems and suggest their view or alternative solutions;
Help students learn how to do research and write a scientific article;
Encourage creative thinking, experimentation, problem-solving.
It can be a project done for one of the classes and further developed or an individual/group work unrelated to school disciplines about a topic student(s) is interested in. A group of experts inside/outside the school will read the submitted articles and choose the ones that will be published.”
Dato Shapakidze “GZAAT Science Magazine is intended to be an online journal that will publish scientific articles written by GZAAT students and, later, any other students whose scientific paper will satisfy some particular criteria. This journal is part of a project. It is initiated and run by Irma Chelidze, Misha Elashvili, and me. Also, the teachers of other departments, such as the Science and History departments, are eager to participate in this project.”
What was the reason behind this decision to create the Math and Science Journal?
Irma Chelidze says:
“Throughout the years we have seen many extraordinary projects done by our students in various fields of science for their classes. However, only the classmates in that particular section and the teacher were able to see such work. We wanted to make some of these projects available for the wider community, inside the school and outside. That's how the idea was born and further developed to include not only math but other science-related subjects and even go beyond that.”
“The primary goal of the science magazine (journal) is to increase the interest of the students in science and mathematics. Also to make them familiar with the research process, to enhance their skills in writing and, particularly, in the creation of scientific articles, which have their specific format and rules of writing. The inspiration for creating the scientific journal came based on already existent papers and written works by GZAAT students, which have been performed in the frame of different projects and presentations related to the scientific content. These works are very interesting and exciting and, we think, that they are worth being known not only by the narrow audience within the classes but also by the entire school body. We think that it would be very beneficial, if the students of GZAAT, and even the students from other schools, can have an opportunity to share their scientific and mathematical ideas. So, this journal is the exact place where they can do it!” states Dato Shapakidze.
I also asked for their expectations: “We expect to have diverse topics from various fields, including social sciences. Hopefully, these will not be descriptive articles only, but the authors will have something new to say. We would like to make the journal public so that any interested person can read it. As for the future expectations, we would like to expand the scope, attract more people from outside, both students and experts in specific fields,” says Irma Chelidze.
Dato Shapakidze tells us: “Many students of GZAAT are involved in preparing scientific projects at the different levels of our curricula. For example, in mathematics, as you have learned already, we implement the project presentations in the frame of which the students will perform the oral presentation of the topic in the class and also produce the written article. There are other students, in different grade levels, who also are writing individual articles or are involved in some group works of scientific or mathematical content. We are going to collect all those written works, articles, we'll put all of them in a single scientific format and submit the BEST works for publication in the Scientific Magazine. We also plan to find professional referees in the school or outside the school who will read the articles critically and recommend them for publication.”
I wanted to know what step they were in in the process of making the journal. The answers were the following:
“Now we already have several students working on the topic of their interest. We expect to receive their work. We are working on the platform as well to publish the journal,”
“As you have learned in the answer to question 3, there is a lot of work ahead. So, we plan to collect all written works at the end of April. In May we will work on adjustment of our journal to an online platform, to run the articles through the refereeing process and at the end of May, or at the end of the academic year to produce the first number of the Scientific Magazine,” says Dato Shapakidze.
There is much excitement in the air. As we can see, there is a lot to look forward to. Don’t miss your chance to have an article published in the science journal. If you are interested in math, science, or social studies, having your research published is a great experience for the future and a huge achievement!
Edited by Mashiko Lortkipanidze
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