Vitebsk school student won gold at the international environmental projects olympiad
A Vitebsk schoolboy, Ilya Savchenko, won a gold medal at the XXII International Olympiad of Ecological Projects INEPO-2014, the head of the biology sector at the Vitebsk Regional Palace of Children and Youth, Veronika Pishchelina, told a BELTA correspondent.
The event, which annually identifies the best biology and ecology experts from around the world, took place from May 9 to 12 in Istanbul. This year, high school students from more than 40 countries participated in the Olympiad: Germany, Russia, Ukraine, the USA, Brazil, Japan, China, Yemen, Iran, Iraq, Nigeria, Côte d'Ivoire, and countries from Africa, Asia, and Indochina. Each country delegated two, and in some cases, three participants to the competition. Two projects from Belarus, which passed preliminary selection in the republic and have practical results, were presented.
Ilya Savchenko, an 11th-grade student at Gymnasium No. 1 and a pupil of the Vitebsk Regional Palace of Children and Youth, prepared the project "The Impact of Grass Fires on Ground Beetle Communities." It was developed in collaboration with Igor Solodovnikov, an associate professor at the Department of Zoology and a Candidate of Biological Sciences at VSU named after P.M. Masherov. With this project, Ilya won the XXV Republican Competition of Scientific Works of Students in Biology and Ecology, which was held at the beginning of this year.
The Regional Palace of Children and Youth, where the gymnasium student also engages in the extracurricular activity "Invertebrate Zoology," assisted him in preparing presentation materials. The institution printed a colorful banner stand, brochures, and albums for Ilya with the main theses of his scientific work, pictures, and graphs, and also provided souvenirs and a national costume in which the young man represented his project and all of Belarus.
"The project defense lasted two days. Jury members, Olympiad participants, and anyone interested could approach any young researcher, ask them to present their scientific work, and ask questions. Therefore, it was necessary not only to have a deep understanding of one's topic and fluent English, but also to attract as much attention as possible to get a higher score," explained Veronika Pishchelina.