The Young Researchers Reunion (Srečanje mladih raziskovalcev) is an event which brings together all youth showing a profound interest in a particular scientific field, who particularly investigate a certain problem and present it in a form of a research project to the jury and also to a wider audience. It is organised by the Association of Organisations for Technical Culture of Slovenia - ZOTKS (Zveza za tehnično kulturo Slovenije), Science to Youth (Gibanje znanost mladini). The base program of Science to Youth is sponsored by Ministry of Science and Technology. (note 1)

There is a contest for a range of scientific fields from architecture to sociology (notes 2 and 3). Mentors and young researchers are encouraged to cooperate in team work and to undertake interdisciplinary projects.

The choice of themes is very broad. Professional help, tutorship and assistance is offered in conjunction with the contest by scientific, educational and professional institutions.

The main aim of The Young Researchers Reunion is for secondary school pupils to develop awareness of self, their work and reasoning skills. Specifically, participants will learn to evaluate their findings, to be able to clearly express opinions, to have the opportunity to discuss their work and research methods, to learn to present their project in a clear and elaborate form and to deduce and evaluate the accuracy of their findings.

The Reunion of Young Researchers takes part in four competitions: Computer sciences in April, Chemistry in June (in conjunction with the competition of knowledge) Technical Sciences in May and the rest in October with the finals in Ljubljana.

Only young researchers and projects which have been selected in community, city or regional competitions can participate in the finals in Ljubljana. Therefore the projects have already gone through the process of evaluation. The focus of the finals is presentation and discussion of the projects by young researchers with the juries.

1. Participating areas are Biology, Biotechnology, Medicine, Food, Building and Architecture, Chemistry, Computer science, Ecology, Economy, Electronics, Engineering and Technics, Ethnology, Geography and Geology, History, History of Art, Material Science - wood, Mathematics, Philosophy, Physics and Astronomy, Psychology, Slovene language and Literature, Sociology

2. Table: Projects and participants by research area for the 33rd Srečanje mladih raziskovalcev 1999

Research projects must include:

1. Title, which gives clear information on the research project.

2. Summary, a short review in Slovene and English language.

3. Introduction with: - description of past research and list of important references - clear definition of the objectives of project and a hypothesis.

4. Theoretical part, which includes a short history of the issue. This short review should include a summary of published information and past results on the issue.

5. Experimental/empirical part includes work methods used in the project which should reflect the requirements and nature of the research area (course of research, collection of material, methodology, analysis, evaluation, experiments).

6. Results, presented with tables, graphs and diagrams.

7. Discussion, which should connect past findings, facts and results by other researchers in the same or related area.

8. Conclusion which - includes the authors findings only - suggests further research.

9. Literature used in preparation for the work and during the research. Only literature referenced directly by the author should be included. Cited authors should be included in the bibliography.

Presentation of the project

The defence of the project with the jury is open to the public.
The researcher can use a display panel to show his work, documentation, graphical presentation or research instruments. The audience can examine his work and discuss it with him. The visual presentation of the project should be clearly illustrated and should include enough information to be interesting for the audience. Students should avoid complex video presentations since these take a lot of time and don't contribute significantly to the presentation. The candidates should avoid long monologues and reviews of already described parts of projects as well.

At the defence the author should:

1. Explain the reasons for his work on the project.

2. Stress the originality of the project.

3. Explain the essence of the project and avoid stating unnecessary data.

4. Introduce the hypothesis (or hypotheses). The hypothesis should be explained in relation to the current project; past research should not be stated at this time.

5. Present experimental work, where the methodology is presented in the form of a "recipe" without descriptions and unnecessary data. Statistical methods should be clearly stated; the discussion should not be connected with the results.

6. State the results clearly and concisely.

7. In the discussion, explain the propositions and support them with data from the literature.

Evaluation

The expert juries at the national reunion are composed of at least three members -- experts in specific fields from a university or institute. The expert jury is headed by a chairman. Members of the juries review the projects and give their written opinions. Before the beginning of the reunion, members of the jury must be informed of all opinions. At the jury meeting they form questions for the project defences. After the project presentations, members of the juries consolidate opinions and rank the projects.

The expert juries will choose projects from each field which are exceptional in terms of quality, research approach, applicability to current issues and excellence of presentation. At the closing ceremony, chairmen of the juries will present the selected projects, explain the decision and give a general evaluation of all projects received. Only the selected projects will be ranked.