This article discusses the results of the work of the section "Informatics" at city conferences, held on the basis of Youth art center “Yunior” in spring 2018, analyzes the activities of students in grades 3–8 of schools in Novosibirsk to involve them in research. Two conferences were held - for primary schoolchildren and for middle school students. Analyzed the answers of the conference participants to the questions of the questionnaire concerning the activity of schoolchildren in the selection of the research topic, participation in the research. A comparison is made of the results of this year's survey with the previous one: the expansion of the topics of the reports, the appearance of a rather complex for a particular age category topics “Genetic Algorithms”.

Keywords: project activities, research, giftedness, questionnaire survey, software engineering, information technology, animated cartoon, robotechnics, genetic algorithms.