The role of scientific and technical creativity contests in children's and youths’ personal development

The current stage of society development is characterized by an accelerated pace of new technologies assimilating. Creating competitive products and training highly qualified personnel constantly require new ideas. External environment is a prerequisite for realizing the person’s creative potential which is supposed to be unlimited biologically. Clubs, competitions, engineering exhibitions, professional skill olympiads help to find and support talented young people, create conditions for disclosing creative abilities of schoolchildren and students, increase the effectiveness of their participation in scientific and technical activities. The purpose of the research is to provide a theoretical justification for the role of scientific and technical creativity competitions in children’s and youth’s personal development. The subject of the research is a scientific and technical creativity contest as a mechanism for human potential developing in the scientific sphere. Given the purpose of and in accordance with the subject of the research the following objectives have been set: studying the problems of formation and development of scientific and technical creativity of students and schoolchildren on the basis of psychological and pedagogical literature analysis; describing a system of identification, maintenance, and support of gifted children and youth in the Russian Federation at the present stage; developing a structural-functional model of the contest of scientific and technical creativity. The article considers the concepts of “scientific and technological development”, “scientific and technical creativity”, defines the main trends and directions of development of the system of children’s technical creativity in the conditions of additional education in case of the Vologda Oblast. General scientific methods (abstract-logical and system approaches, generalization and comparison methods) were used in the work. Practical implications of the manuscript lie in the fact that its results can be used by educational organizationsand student’s parents for organizing career guidance events, developing and promoting innovative projects, and collaborating with research centers.