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26 March, 2019 Academic

Leading the way in Biology: Felix participates in the Australian Science Olympiads

Over the Christmas break, Year 12 student Felix participated in the Australian Science Olympiads, a two-week program for top performing secondary science students held at Australian National University (ANU) in Canberra.

Students from across Australia travelled to Canberra to undertake an intensive program in biology, chemistry, earth and environmental science, or physics.

Felix was one of only 20 students selected to participate in the biology program which is a condensed version of a first-year undergraduate biomedicine course.

Leading the way in Biology: Felix participates in the Australian Science Olympiads Felix, second from the left, with the other Australian Science Olympiads biology program participants

“I took an exam in June 2018, and from the exam, the program organisers selected the top 20 biology students in Australia and offered them a place in the Olympiads,” said Felix.

During the program, the students were given a taste of university life, they lived in ANU student accommodation and took their classes in lecture halls.

“The program gave me a lot of insight into being a first-year biomedicine student, it was really interesting and quite challenging,” said Felix.

“The content we studied was very broad. We studied things like plant structure, the human body, species and evolution,” he said. “The course was also intense, we studied for two-weeks, with one day off in the middle and started classes at 8.30am and finished most nights at around 10.30pm.”

Leading the way in Biology: Felix participates in the Australian Science Olympiads Benjamin and Felix with their Australian Science Olympiad biology exam certificates last year.

The program also enabled the students to develop their study and thinking skills.

“A lot of science is thinking and the summer school helped me learn to think clearly which I can apply in my other VCE subjects,” said Felix.

The Australian Science Olympiad is also the stepping stone to the International Science Olympiads which are considered to be the ‘Olympic Games for science students’.

The International Science Olympiad is being held in Hungary later this year, and at the conclusion of the Australian program, the students all undertook a further exam to determine which students will be invited to attend the International Olympiad.

Only four students will be selected and the successful students will be announced in the coming weeks.

Congratulations to Felix on being selected to attend the Australian Science Olympiad, we are extremely proud of his achievements and look forward to hearing about his future endeavours.

I would recommend the Australian Science Olympiad to other students and encourage everyone to complete the exams.Felix, Year 12