India wins three gold medals at Intl Junior Science Olympiad

IJSO, an annual individual and team competition in Natural Sciences for students in the age group of 14-15 years and was held between December 2 and 11.

Aayush Sharma from Jaipur, Yash Gupta from Udaipur and Ashwin Sreenivas from Cochin, Kerala won the gold while Harine Ravichandiran, N Bharath Sivaram from Chennai in Tamil Nadu and Sai Akhil Suggu from Guntur, Andhra Pradesh notched the silver medals, P K Joshi, from Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education (HBCSE), who helmed the team said today.

The team comprising Aayush, Ashwin and Sivaram also got the best experimental team (gold) medal. In all, 33 countries had participated in the IJSO-2010. India stood second with Russia and Korea on an overall ranking base. The top rank went to Chinese Taipei, he said here.

The students were led by Ritesh Khunyakari of HBCSE and Chandan Bhosale of Garodia International School, Mumbai. IJSO, an annual event which is being held for the seventh time now, is organised to recognise the significance of natural sciences in the lives of young students, Joshi said.

Primary emphasis of the programme is to test students' understanding of basic scientific concepts. The HBCSE has been a nodal centre for training and selecting students for the Junior Science Olympiad, he said.

Preparations for selecting the team began in November, 2009. About 10,000 students from across the nation took part in the first level examination conducted by Indian Association of Physics Teachers.

For the second level, which is also called Indian National Junior Science Olympiad (INJSO), 314 students were selected for the exam. The INJSO examination was conducted in 15 centres across the nation. About 35 students were selected to participate in an intensive training camp, namely, the orientation cum selection Camp for Junior Science Olympiad at HBCSE from May 17-June 5 this year.

A team of six students was selected to represent India in the international event.