A Hot Summer for Young Naturalists
The International Young Naturalists’ Tournament (IYNT), the largest international competition in the natural sciences for secondary school students, was held with the support of the Science Around Us Foundation. It was the first time Belarus hosted a scientific tournament for school students of such a high level. Students from 11 countries solved complex problems in physics, chemistry, and biology, participated in scientific discussions, carried out experiments, and defended their projects in English before an international expert commission from 19 to 23 August 2019 on the premises of the Belarusian State University.
The intellectual tournament gathered 21 teams of children aged 12 to 16 from Belarus, Bulgaria, Greece, Georgia, Kazakhstan, China, New Zealand, Russia, Romania, Croatia, and Switzerland.
Belarus was represented by students of the BSU Lyceum Daria Sinitsa, Anna Mulitsa, Elizaveta Andronchik, Polina Makruseva, as well as a student of the Minsk State Regional Lyceum Anastasia Kostyan and a student of Minsk Gymnasium No. 27 Margarita Krent. A third-year student of the BSU Faculty of Radiophysics and Computer Technology Sofya Anisimova and a teacher of the BSU Faculty of Biology Olga Ugnacheva prepared the teams to the tournament.
Young naturalists looked for ways to soundproof rooms, studied the effects of salt on soil fertility and the factors affecting the apparent size of the Moon, hypothesized about the maximum height of mountains on various celestial bodies, and dealt with other important universal issues at a high university level.
The winner of the Young Naturalists’ Tournament was the team from New Zealand. Croatia and Switzerland won silver and bronze. The Belarusian team took the 10th place in the tournament.
Additional information:
The International Young Naturalists’ Tournament has been held annually since 2013. It focuses at solving interdisciplinary problems in the field of natural sciences, developing critical thinking and team research skills.
The next Young Naturalists’ Tournament will be held in St. Petersburg.
The winning team from New Zealand
Excursion to Nadneman, the birthplace of the outstanding Belarusian scientist Yakub Narkevich-Iodko
Links:
- https://www.bsu.by/main.aspx?guid=235071&detail=1033633
- https://www.belta.by/regions/view/shkolniki-iz-10-stran-priedut-v-minsk-na-turnir-junyh-estestvoispytatelej-358480-2019
- https://eng.belta.by/society/view/minsk-to-host-international-young-naturalists-tournament-123394-2019/
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSyqjJeUSb0
- http://iynt.org/minsk/