Globetrotting for science

Fancy an all-expenses paid trip to Australia, Iceland, Portugal or Germany next summer? It's the opportunity of a lifetime and it could be yours if you're a secondlevel student with an interest in chemistry, physics, biology or computer programming. To be in with a chance of winning, all you have to do is compete in the first IBM/DCU Irish Science Olympiad.

By now every second-level school on the island - in both the Republic and Northern Ireland - has received an invitation from DCU to put forward students for the IBM/ DCU Irish Science Olympiad (ISO) which takes place on January 31st and February 1st at DCU.

Ireland has long been represented in the International Maths Olympiads thanks to UCC. However, it was only in 1995 that Ireland first competed in infomatics at the International Science Olympiads and this year, for the first time, fielded a team in chemistry. The country's first biology and physics teams will be selected in 1998.

"The ISO challenges post-primary school students throughout the country to enhance their knowledge, understanding and skill in biology, chemistry, computer programming and physics by participating in Olympiad activities," says Michael Cotter, a director of the ISO. "By accepting the ISO challenge, students are offered the opportunity to better equip themselves for further study and career development. Students who achieve the ultimate level of excellence in ISO programmes have the opportunity to better equip themselves for further study and career development."

Noel O'Boyle, a first-year student at UCG, confirms this: "I opted to study chemistry rather than computer science as a result of my participation in the 1997 Chemistry Olympiads." A former pupil of St Muredach's College, Ballina, Co Mayo, and an Irish bronze medallist, O'Boyle also won a bronze medal for his country at the International Chemistry Olympiad in Montreal, Canada, last July. "I had to revise the subject for the competitions so when my mocks came around I had my revision done," he adds.

Irish Olympiad winners proceed to the International Science Olympiads which are held in July. Next year the biology team travels to Kiel, Germany, the chemistry team competes in Melbourne, Australia, infomatics winners are lined up to visit Estoril, Portugal, while the International Physics Olympiad takes place in Reykjavik, Iceland.

The package sent to schools includes question papers in each of the four areas - infomatics, physics, biology and chemistry. Students may participate in as many of them as they wish. The biology, chemistry and physics papers are aimed at Leaving Cert and A level students, while the infomatics paper may be tackled by students from the age of 15 onwards.

"The questions are to be answered by the students on an individual basis," Cotter explains. The questions are practical and involve problem-solving and calculations, he says. "Students must demonstrate an understanding of the topic."

Answer papers are then returned to DCU - by January 13th - where they are marked by the university's academic staff. The top 100 students in computer programming and the top 50 in biology, physics and chemistry are chosen to go forward to the Irish Science Olympiad. The two-day Irish finals consist of five-hour practical and five-hour written exams followed by entertainments. Meanwhile, DCU's academic staff are working hard to mark the tests.

Every students who attends the Olympiad gets a certificate. Prizes are awarded in a range of categories: gold, silver and bronze medals to the winners in each event; awards to the best practical and theoretical students in each event and gold, silver and bronze medals for the under 15, 16 and 17 age groups in each event.

The top six to eight students in each subject form the final groups from which the teams are selected to represent Ireland in the various International Olympiads. They all embark upon correspondence courses and participate in a week's intensive training course at DCU in June, after which four students in each discipline are chosen for the Irish teams.

Winners can look forward to 10 to 12 days abroad paid for by DCU, IBM and the Department of Education and Science, meeting and competing with students from up to 70 countries.

According to Cotter, many of the students who have participated in previous Olympiads have reported doing so in order to experience leading edge technology and science equipment at first hand. As a result, many have opted to study the subject in which they have competed at third level.

Interestingly, you don't have to be top of your class in school in order to do well in the Olympiads. "Some winners admit that they're not the best in the subject at school," says Cotter, "but they're the ones with the confidence to enter."

FOR the past three years, Eoin Curran, a Leaving Cert student at High School, Rathgar, Dublin, has taken part in the Infomatics Olympiads. As a 15-year-old, he first won a bronze medal in the Irish Infomatics Olympiad back in 1995. He went on to collect a bronze medal at the International Olympiad in the Netherlands that year and bronze medals in both the national and international Olympiads in Hungary the following year.

This year Curran is the Irish gold medal winner and represented Ireland in the Capetown Olympiad just ending.

"It's a great experience," he says. "I would definitely recommend people to enter. You get to meet people and challenge yourself. At the international Olympiads the competitions take only two days and you spend the rest of the time sightseeing and mixing with students from around the world."