Michal Djobek takes 2nd at both Biology and Physics Olympiads

The road will be mastered by the walking

EISB is international and teaching is conducted in English. Despite the fact that there are quite a lot of Slovak-speaking students at the school, participation in Slovak Olympiads, organized by IUVENTA with the support of the Ministry of Education, is a huge challenge for most of them. It is one thing to speak the Slovak language, it is another thing to know, understand and apply scientific vocabulary in Slovak.

This academic year, 16 of our students took part in such Olympiads as: Pitogoriada, Biology, Chemistry, Geography, Physics, Slovak language. Many of them successfully coped with the tasks of the school stage and were invited to the district stage.

High knowledge of Geography at this stage was demonstrated by Viktor, MYP 2, gaining 81% of correct answers.

We also have winners. At the district stage of the Olympiad in Biology, Michal, MYP 2, took the 2nd place. He presented the research work “Investigation of the influence of the amount of emitted CO₂ on the temperature increase in a closed system.” It took Michal several months of intensive work to develop this project. You can see the project here.

However, this student’s interests were not limited to Biology. Since September of this year, Michal has also been preparing for the Physics Olympiad. For six months, the student mastered the physical terminology in the Slovak language well, solved dozens of problems from previous years and … took another Second place at the district stage of the Olympiad in Physics in the G category.

–Why did you decide to participate in the Olympiad in Biology and Physics?

M. – Firstly my parents told me to participate but then when I learned more about it I got more interested in it and then decided to go participate in the Olympiad. One other thing I got interested in physics because I watched videos on YouTube about a special shape (Brachistochrone) and also a guy making a basketball hoop that calculates where you will throw the ball.

–  How did you prepare for the Olympiads?

 M. – For the Olympiads I mostly prepared myself by having extra lessons with Ms. Svetlana and watching videos on YouTube.

– Why did you decide to do your project? 

M. – Because Global warming is quite a recent topic for today and I wanted to investigate a little how it works.

What new did you learn?

M. – I learned many new things for example in physics how to calculate heat and for biology I learned what layers a tree grows every year.

What was difficult for you?

   M. –  The most difficult part to do for both is to remember the names.

How did you feel when you found out you were the winner?

   M. –  I felt happy and also quite surprised because I didn’t think that I would be so high up in the results.

What are the benefits for students to participate in the Olympiads?

M. – Joining a Olympiad is from my opinion good because if you are going to be ranked high in the leaderboards you will get lots of bonuses like it improving your grade or having a better chance at joining a new school but one enormous thing could be that you don’t need to write a big test because you were very good in the Olympiad.

Are you going to continue participating in the Olympiads next year?

M. – Yes.

We congratulate Michal on his first Victories.

Participation in IUVENTA Olympiads allows our students to feel self-confident and competitive; helps them deepen and improve their knowledge in various subjects, and prepares them to successfully pass the Maturita exams.