ИСТИНА

The Astrophysical School “Traektoria” is a educational project supported by the non-profit Traektoria Foundation (Russia) in 2016-2019. Here we describe its details, results and perspectives. The project brought together dozens of scientists and educators from many research institutes working in the field of astrophysics and related disciplines. The main idea of the project is to incorporate motivated high-school students in the scientific society before their graduation from the school and entering a university. The educational program of the school suggesting a consequent (non-stop) 3-year educational process touching all main topics of modern astronomy from celestial mechanics to astrobiology. In 2016 forty high-school students were selected from 120 candidates within an all-Russia competition. During last years, the students have been invited six times for participation in face-to-face schools (7-14 days each) which were organized in various astrophysical institutions around the Europe (e.g. Special Astrophysical Observatory in Russia, Observatory of Tuorla in Finland, Alikhanyan National Lab. in Armenia). The program of these meetings was fulfilled by lectures and practical work in astrophysics, physics, maths, English language and by many additional activities like school research conference, popular lectures, and sports. In the time between these meetings, all students were involved in the research projects mentoring by professional scientists. These projects are carried out remotely and some of them were finished by a peer-reviewed scientific publication. We conclude that the project highly influenced the students’ educational and professional trajectories and supported their intentions to keep evolving within the international scientific (astronomical) community.