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Four Indian students won medals at the International Biology Olympiad held in Astana (Kazakhstan) between July 7 and July 13. The students won 1 gold and three silver medals competing with 80 other countries. Mumbai ’s Vedant Sakre from Mumbai won the gold medal while Ishan Pednekar from Ratnagiri, Shrijith Sivakumar from Chennai, and Yashashwi Kumar from Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh won the silver medal. The team had a six-day trip to the city and was led by professor Sasikumar Menon from TDM Lab, Mumbai, and Dr Mayuri Rege from Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education (HBCSE), TIFR, and two other scientific observers, Dr Rajesh Patkar from IIT Bombay , and Dr Devesh Suthar from MS University, Baroda. “I was introduced to the Olympiad after I appeared for the Homi Bhabha exam which is mostly prevalent among Mumbai youths and is held for Classes 6 and 9. After that, I got to know about the International Junior Science Olympiad for Class 8 and 9 students. So I prepared for it and managed to reach the top 35. However, I could not make it to the Indian team,” said Vedant Sakre. The International Biology Olympiad (IBO) is held for school students and is one of the most well-known science olympiads. After appearing for the National Science Exam, students are picked for the IBO. For the olympiad, 300 students are selected from which 35 move to the orientation cum selection camp which is held at Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education. It was after the first two stages when Vedant was selected for the orientation session at the Centre. “These 35 students hold both practical and theoretical tests, and then four students are selected to represent India,” said the the 17-year-old who is interested in pursuing research in pure science from Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru. National Standard Examination (NSE) conducted by IAPT in physics, chemistry, biology is the first stage for the international Olympiad. Shrijith Sivakumar has been preparing for this for the past three years. “It was my third year with NSE as I wrote the exam in Class 10, 11 and 12. I have been preparing for it since Class 10 and coming here at this level is a result of cumulative efforts of all the exams,” said Sivakumar. Another winner, Yashashwi Kumar, wants to pursue medicine and will appear for NEET UG soon. He got to know about the exam from the Indian Association of Physics Teachers. “My parents first found this website and then exposed me to the world of olympiads. Then from Class 9 onwards, I started to appear for olympiads including Junior Science Olympiad and then after Class 9, I started to appear for biology olympiads,” he added. Ishan Pednekar classmates and seniors helped him to know more about such competitions. “I analysed past year question papers and had some hands-on experience at the lab and for the olympiad. I was trained at Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education,” said the 17-year-old. When asked about the level of difficulty between IBO and NEET UG, Sakre said the former’s gives application-based, data and analytical questions. “They will give you some research scenarios, or will give results of the experiment and will expect you to draw conclusions on the same. The exam also raised the standard for the future biology exams,” said the gold medalist. Shrijith Sivakumar wants to pursue medicine. He says although both of exams have biology, but they focus on different aspects of the subject. “NEET requires a complete understanding of the NCERT book, and every single line with facts on fingers but on the other hand, IBO is analytical, based on logical application and more practical exams,” said the silver medalist who scored 706 marks out of 720 in NEET UG 2024. None
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