OREANDA-NEWS. On 02 February 2009 was announced, that this year the annual schoolchildren erudition competition held by the Latvenergo Group has received applications from 183 teams or 915 pupils from all regions of Latvia.

eXperiments is an erudition competition for 8th and 9th class pupils whose goal is to educate schoolchildren in the safe and effective use of electricity in everyday life, as well as furthering the professional orientation of pupils, encouraging the deeper study of exact sciences. Studies in the 8th and 9th grade are a time when the young person first comes to seriously consider his or her future profession, interests and potential career; therefore the competition organized by the Latvenergo Group is a possibility for smart and erudite pupils to test and demonstrate their knowledge.

“It gives us great joy that each year the competition attracts so many pupils, as it proves that Latvia has erudite, creative young people and the exact sciences continue to be interesting to them. It also delights us as the potential future employers of these pupils, as it is important to ensure the continuous entrance of new specialists into the job market, and this is the first step towards that,” says the Head of the Communication Projects Department of Latvenergo AS, Raja Kocanova.

In order to make the competition more interesting and allow the organizers to select the best teams in Latvia objectively, the competition is divided into “correspondence” and the “live” parts. During the correspondence stage, all the teams that have applied for the competition participate by answering the questions of the test in the eXperiment Internet homepage in order to compete for the chance of participating in the live contest – the television game.

The television games will be shown once a week with reruns on LTV7 in April and May, when the TV viewers will be able to follow the intense competition of mind and skill for the big prize of the super final – the trip to the cradle of Western civilization and democracy, Athens, the capital of Greece. The competition laureates will not be the sole beneficiaries; the other participants will also receive valuable prizes from the Latvenergo Group and the competition’s backers. This year, prizes will be presented with the generous support of the Latvenergo Group and its partners: FTB Latvija tourism agency, ISIC schoolchildren’s and students’ map, “Lielvвrds” publishing house, the “Ilustrзtв Zinвtne” magazine, the “Latvijas Avоze” newspaper, the Internet portal draugiem.lv, the manufacturer of photo and optical equipment Nikon, “Meюakaнis” adventure park, the “Aerodium” vertical wind tunnel, as well as the juice producer “Cido”.

The Latvenergo Group is organizing the schoolchildren’s erudition competition for the 14th year in a row. During the competition, pupils can show how well they have studied during the school year, as well as acquire additional knowledge in physics and energetics that is not part of the compulsory elementary school program. At the same time, it is also a chance to popularize the name of the school on a national level and to prove which school, city and region is preparing the best future specialists in the exact sciences.