Scribd Logo
Upload

Welcome to Scribd!

  • 27 views

    IBO2012 Newsletter 04

    Uploaded by

    Valdi Dwirama
    1) Competitors undertook four practical tests in fields like animal anatomy, microbiology, cell biology and plant diversity at the National Institute of Education. 2) After the tests, competitors felt a mixture of emotions and commented that the tests tested their imagination, speed and were long. Some tests were harder than expected. 3) Jury members and competitors reunited with relief and excitement after the challenging practical tests. Jury members reassured students that they are all winners.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    IBO2012 Newsletter 04

    Uploaded by

    Valdi Dwirama
    27 views2 pages
    1) Competitors undertook four practical tests in fields like animal anatomy, microbiology, cell biology and plant diversity at the National Institute of Education. 2) After the tests, competitors felt a mixture of emotions and commented that the tests tested their imagination, speed and were long. Some tests were harder than expected. 3) Jury members and competitors reunited with relief and excitement after the challenging practical tests. Jury members reassured students that they are all winners.

    Original Description:

    #IBO

    Copyright

    © © All Rights Reserved

    Available Formats

    PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Did you find this document useful?

    Is this content inappropriate?

    1) Competitors undertook four practical tests in fields like animal anatomy, microbiology, cell biology and plant diversity at the National Institute of Education. 2) After the tests, competitors felt a mixture of emotions and commented that the tests tested their imagination, speed and were long. Some tests were harder than expected. 3) Jury members and competitors reunited with relief and excitement after the challenging practical tests. Jury members reassured students that they are all winners.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    27 views2 pages

    IBO2012 Newsletter 04

    Uploaded by

    Valdi Dwirama
    1) Competitors undertook four practical tests in fields like animal anatomy, microbiology, cell biology and plant diversity at the National Institute of Education. 2) After the tests, competitors felt a mixture of emotions and commented that the tests tested their imagination, speed and were long. Some tests were harder than expected. 3) Jury members and competitors reunited with relief and excitement after the challenging practical tests. Jury members reassured students that they are all winners.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    of 2

    Daily Newsletter

    Issue 4 | Wednesday, 11 July 2012

    Todays Weather Forecast

    Late morning and early afternoon thundery showers.


    26 to 30 degrees Celsius. Humidity: 60%- 95%

    Program for Wednesday , 11 July 2012


    Jury Members and Observers
    06:30 - 08:00
    08:30 - Late

    Breakfast (Rainforest Caf)


    Vetting of Theoretical Tests (NIE Blk 5)

    The ubiquitous IBO 2012


    Pangolin, Manis
    (means sweet in Malay)

    Its Time To Be Practical

    After a day of settling in, competitors had to face the first of their
    challenges - the Practical Tests. Early in the morning, students were
    shuttled off to the National Institute of Education, where they undertook
    four laboratory tasks designed to test their abilities in the following
    fields: Animal Anatomy and Ecology, Microbiology and Biochemistry, Cell
    and Molecular Biology and last but not least, Plant Diversity, Anatomy
    and Physiology.

    Student Competitors
    07:30 - 08:15
    00:00 - 08:45
    09:00 - 10:15
    11:00 - 14:30

    Breakfast (PGPR)
    Bus departs (PGPR)
    Visit to Faculty of Science, NUS
    Visit to Jurong Bird Park and Lunch

    15:45 - 16:45

    Visit to NEWater Plant

    00:00 - 17:00

    Bus departs NEWater

    18:30 - 20:00

    Dinner (PGPR)

    While waiting for further instructions, Raymond from


    Team USA looks pensive as he mentally prepares
    himself for the IBO practical tests.

    Lab Inspection Tour


    Donning multi-colored lab coats, competitors filed into orderly rows behind
    their guides. Beyond aesthetics, the colors cluster competitors into four
    groups. Each group has one representative from each team and rotate
    through each practical task in four shifts lasting the entire day.

    A family of IBO 2012 Pangolins greets visitors at the entrance to NTUs lush campus

    Knowing me, knowing youaha ah!

    Good luck and good bye - competitors marching off to their first
    practical test of the day. This would be the last time they would
    see their team mates for the next 9 hours or so.

    Question: What is the craziest thing you have ever done?


    Parachuting through 4000m of pure air (Christian Vahlensieck, Germany)
    I once ate a raw onion as a dare (Hafsa Shahab, Pakistan)
    Coming to IBO (Jurga Mituzaite, Lithuania)
    I stood on a ledge and sang twinkle twinkle little star in a shopping mall (Nol

    Planting seeds of
    wisdom - Lovingly
    germinated by
    Dr Shawn Lum of
    NIE, the Plant
    Diversity practical
    test featured the
    seedling of
    Singapores de
    facto national
    fruit - the durian.

    Swddinwvdhipong, Singapore)

    Go to the beach wearing only underwear (Anderson De Sousa Jorge, Brazil)


    Skinny dipping a Danish graduation tradition (Jesper Levring, Denmark)
    Flashed my ass in public (guess who?)

    Xiang Xi, an 18 year old from China who just graduated from Walter Johnson
    High School in Maryland, USA. He flew in from the US and made special
    arrangements to volunteer for the IBO during his summer break. He is the team
    guide for Turkmenistan.
    Why did you volunteer?
    Earlier this year, I competed in the US Science Olympiad,
    a competition that saw over 6000 teams participating. In
    addition, I took the initiative to get my high school to
    register and participate in the US Biology Olympiad, of
    which I was a semi-finalist from my school. Through this
    experience, I discovered that I had a deeper passion for
    biology beyond the competitions and I wanted to pursue
    my interest through various avenues. I volunteer so that I
    can give back to the organizations.
    What do you hope to get out of this experience?
    An experience I would never relinquish otherwise!

    Meet the volunteers


    Sue Ann, youngest volunteer at age 16, team guide of Czech
    Republic. She is waiting to commence studies at the United
    World College in the Fall.
    Why did you volunteer?
    I was looking for opportunities to volunteer and I found this
    on the internet. I did not know about the IBO prior to this and
    I was attracted to the fact that it is such a large scale,
    international event.

    A brief relief - Janelle San


    Juan (middle) from Australia
    chats animatedly while
    Belgian Team member Axelle
    Hue (left) is all ears.
    Competitors take a break
    with snacks and drinks
    before the next test

    A serious game - Netherlands


    Team Member Kyra Defourny
    carefully counts mahjong (a
    popular Chinese game) chips
    in the statistical segment of
    the Animal Anatomy and
    Ecology practical. According to
    Dr Shirley Lim, the task
    markers were amused when
    they were sorting out
    submission envelopes and
    heard a strange, rattling
    sound - apparently one of the
    students had submitted
    his/her mahjong chips along
    with the answer sheets!

    Nikhil Buduma from Team USA peers


    curiously at a durian seedling - a sight
    uncommon even to native Singaporeans,
    who are more familiar with the spiky fruit
    itself!

    While competitors were occupied with their


    tests, jury members took a well deserved break
    from a gruelling day of vetting and translation.
    They enjoyed a tour of a special desalination
    plant which recycles wastewater into drinking
    water - the NEWater Plant, as well as popular
    tourist spot, Jurong Bird Park.
    When asked what they liked most about their
    trip, South African Jury Member Sooklachar
    Naidoo was all praises for the Bird Park,
    especially the Birds and Buddies show. Thats
    the best part he insisted, You have to get the
    children to watch it!.

    Jury members
    Dharmendra Shah,
    Anupama Ronad and P.V.
    Balaji from India are all
    smiles after a fun,
    activity-packed day

    This was met with a chorus of agreement from


    fellow jury members Dharmendra Shah,
    Anupama Ronad and P. V. Balaji from India.
    Gesturing animatedly, Dharmendra said he yelled
    Come on, choose me! when they were picking
    audience members to participate in the show,
    and ended up being selected to hold a loop while
    a trained Scarlet Macaw flew through it. That was
    certainly the highlight of his trip!

    One of the founding fathers of the IBO,


    The Netherlands Hans Morelis beams
    for the camera; he remarked that he
    had seen many parks, but the Bird Park
    was particularly fine. His favorite part
    of the trip? The Lory Loft, the worlds
    largest walk-in Lory Flight Aviary. He
    was impressed by how close you could
    get to the birds, how they were
    unafraid when people approached
    them and the fact that there was so
    many! He made head-bobbing motions
    to illustrate how the lories caressed
    each other. You could walk among the
    birds, enthused Hans, It was much
    better than watching them from afar.

    Jury members were treated to a tour of


    Singapores NEWater treatment facility, where
    they enjoyed a presentation of Singapores
    water needs and the methods of water
    purification used at the plant.
    The water tastes good, I think! said Sulev
    Kuuse, Jury member from Estonia.
    It was amazing, said Bayarmaa Jambalsuren,
    Jury member from Mongolia.

    Getting to Know You


    To celebrate the end of the first part of the IBO competition, the student competitors enjoyed a Social Night. Senior
    guides Pearlyn and Ramya planned the programme for the night, and the Multipurpose Hall at PGPR was converted into a
    theatre of sorts. Kicking off the festivities was viewing of submissions for the Bio Video Competition, with self-made
    entries submitted by Australia, Japan and Slovakia. Under the motto We love Biology, Slovakias video exhibited a stylish
    film noir feel, Australia went for an inspirational tone while Japans short film about alternative uses of the well-known
    Campbell biology textbook (or Campbible) cracked everyone up as the team displayed how to use the textbook as a
    bulletproof vest, a massage tool and even as a proposal gift to fellow Biology fans!

    South African Jury member


    Sooklachar Naidoo relaxing with
    fellow jury member from
    Pakistan Zahid Mukhtar outside
    the jury room

    After the Practical , how do you feel?

    How do you feel? we asked competitors as they


    exited the laboratories. Said Hannah Mugford from
    Australia: I feel a mixture of everything! and
    lamented that the last test was really long - not a
    surprise, since competitors spend at least 1.5 hours
    per lab task! Added fellow competitor Juan Manuel
    from Argentina, The practical tested our
    imagination and speed - of which we are sure
    competitors have plenty.

    Dont let those cheery grins fool you - competitors Parisha


    (middle) from South Africa, Francisco (left) from Spain and
    Alzbeta (right) from Slovakia were exhausted after their 3rd
    laboratory task, which was at the Plant Diversity, Anatomy and
    Physiology laboratory. Said Alzbeta: It was not what I
    expected! while Francisco opined: It was hard, but I thought it
    would be harder. Parisha felt that the Plant Diversity task was
    better than the other two (Cell and Microbology) tests, and
    made us laugh when she commented that the seedling of the
    notoriously pungent durian fruit tree smelt funny!.

    Well Done, Everyone!!

    Brimming with anticipation, jury members waited with bated breath for their young charges to appear.
    When the students finally came into sight, a mix of emotions - excitement, relief and elation infused both
    jury members and competitors as they made a beeline for one another. Reunited, they took this opportunity
    to discuss the questions of the practical, and many jury members reassured students that no matter the
    outcome, they are all winners in their eyes!

    After students were given some time to vote for their favorite video, Team Singapore took the stage with the song
    Home, a National Day song composed in 1998. Electrifying performance after performance followed, ending with a
    creative, biology-themed dance by the team guides who adapted the song YMCA to one entitled GTCA, standing for
    the bases in DNA. The hall was filled with laughter, catcalls and exuberant cheers long into the night, and every student
    left with newfound admiration for their fellow competitors - not only were their friends smart, they were also incredibly
    talented!

    Its over! chirps SuMin Yoon from Team New


    Zealand as she high-fives her jury member.

    Team Singapores post-practical conference

    We spotted Team Japan sporting their traditional garments and asked


    team member Tomohiro Maeda about their item for the night. Said
    Tomohiro, Well be doing a dance about the product ATP, and a
    traditional Japanese dance called the Hyottoko. How long have they
    practised their dances? Just a little bit! said a modest Tomohiro.

    Audience members wave their hands in the air from side


    to side in a show of support for Team Singapores heartfelt
    singing.

    Birthday surprise - After


    presenting a hilarious,
    side-splitting
    homemade music video
    Bad Project, a spoof
    of Lady Gagas popular
    Bad Romance, Team
    USA announced that it
    was team member Jerry
    Lei Dings birthday that
    day, spurring the
    audience to sing a
    happy birthday song in
    response!

    YES! Rhogerry Deshycka from Team


    Indonesia pumps his fists into the air,
    clearly pleased by what he heard from
    comparing notes with his jury and team
    members.

    Getting some TLC


    (Tender Loving Care):
    Anderson De Sousa
    Jorge from Brazil gets a
    hug and pat on his back
    from his jury member.

    You might also like