International Astronomy Olympiad
The International Astronomy Olympiad (IAO) is an internationally recognized annual astronomy scientific-educating event for high school students (14–18 years old), which includes an intellectual competition between these students. It is one of the International Science Olympiads.
The Eurasian Astronomical Society founded the IAO in 1996.
Competing rounds
The competing part of IAO consists of three rounds: a theoretical, an observational, and a practical. Problems of the theoretical round involve classical problems in branches of astronomy, astrophysics, space and planetary physics, and maybe hypothetical situations. The observational round involves recognizing stars, constellations, estimating star magnitude and angular distance, working with telescopes or other observational technique. The practical round consists of problems based on data results of observations, solutions propose analysis of these data. The chairman is Michael Gavrilov.
Aim
The style of the problems of IAO is aimed at developing imagination, creativity and independent thinking. They stimulate the students to recognize the problem independently, to choose a model, to make necessary suppositions, estimations, to conduct multiway calculations or logic operations. The rounds are not tests of speed or memory or knowledge of formal facts and data, and all basic data and formal facts are provided to the students. The ways of solutions are of the first priority in evaluations of the participants' solutions, while the correct formal final answer (formula or numerical value) does not play the determining role in the evaluation. Participants should have a possibility to exhibit the analytical capacities, and not just to do all procedures by hard rules. Also the jury board does not demand from participants to follow the way of solution that is written by the author or composer of the problem.
The International Astronomy Olympiad is carried out in the spirit of friendship and tolerance, where the competition is a stimulus for showing the participants' capabilities but contacts, exchange of ideas and collaboration between students, teachers and scientists from various countries have a primary importance. The competition at the IAO is not the only part of the programme.
Participants
The students for IAO are selected during National Olympiads and Camps of the participating states.
Traditionally the teams of Armenia, Brazil, Bulgaria, China, Estonia, India, Indonesia, Italy, Korea, Lithuania, Moscow Land, Romania, Russia, Sweden, Serbia, and Thailand take part in the IAO. Bangladesh, Crimea, Iran, Kyrgyzstan, Ukraine and Belarus take part not regularly. Croatia, Czech Republic and Kazakhstan joined the competition at last years. A few countries plan to join IAO in the nearest future.
Moscow Land and Crimea send teams apart from Russia and Ukraine. As organizers of the oldest open astronomical olympiads and competitions (since the 1940s), and due to their historical service in the formation and development of IAO they are considered at IAO as independent states with all rights and duties.
Summary
| Nr. | Year | Dates | Time Zone | Town | Country or territory | Participating states | Observing states |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| I | 1996 | November 1–9 | UT+3 | Nizhnij Arkhyz |  | 4 | 1 |
| II | 1997 | October 21–28 | UT+4 / UT+3 | Nizhnij Arkhyz | | 4 | - |
| III | 1998 | October 20–27 | UT+4 / UT+3 | Nizhnij Arkhyz | | 5 | 1 |
| IV | 1999 | September 25 – October 2 | UT+3 | Nauchnyj |  | 7 | 2 |
| V | 2000 | October 20–27 | UT+4 | Nizhnij Arkhyz | | 8 | - |
| VI | 2001 | September 26 – October 3 | UT+3 | Nauchnyj | | 7 | 2 |
| VII | 2002 | October 22–29 | UT+4 / UT+3 | Nizhnij Arkhyz | | 11 | - |
| VIII | 2003 | October 2–8 | UT+2 | Stockholm |  | 13 | 2 |
| IX | 2004 | October 1–9 | UT+3 | Simeiz | | 18 | - |
| X | 2005 | October 25 – November 2 | UT+8 | Beijing |  | 15 | 2 |
| XI | 2006 | November 10–19 | UT+5:30 | Bombay |  | 16 | 3 |
| XII | 2007 | September 29 – October 7 | UT+3 | Simeiz | | 23 | 1 |
| XIII | 2008 | October 13–21 | UT+2 | Trieste |  | 19 | 1 |
| XIV | 2009 | November 8–16 | UT+8 | Hangzhou | | 17 | 1 |
| XV | 2010 | October 16–24 | UT+3 | Sudak | | 19 | - |
| XVI | 2011 | September 22–30 | UT+6 | Alma-Ata |  | 19 | 2 |
| XVII | 2012 | October 16–24 | UT+9 | Gwangju |  | 20 | 2 |
| XVIII | 2013 | September 6–14 | UT+3 | Vilnius |  | 20 | - |
| XIX | 2014 | October 12–21 | UT+6 | Bishkek - Cholpon-Ata |  | 17 | - |
| XX | 2015 | October 15–23 | UT+3 | Kazan | | 13 | - |
| XXI | 2016 | October 5–13 | UT+3 | Smolyan - Pamporovo |  | 16 | - |
| XXII | 2017 | October 27 – November 4 | UT+8 | Weihai | | 14 | 1 |
| XXIII | 2018 | October 6–14 | UT+5:30 | Colombo |  | 19 | - |
| XXIV | 2019 | October 19–27 | UT+3 / UT+2 | Piatra Neamt |  | 20 | - |
| XXV | 2020 | October | UT+2 / UT+1 | Matera | | ||
Asian-Pacific Astronomy Olympiad
The Asian-Pacific Astronomy Olympiad (APAO) is a regional annual astronomy event for high school students from Asian countries. It provides a program for teams of students that did not qualify for the International Astronomy Olympiad (IAO) and the APAO follows the IAO on the calendar. The APAO was founded April 25, 2005 by IAO chairman.[1]
Teams of Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Kirgizia, Korea, Nepal, Pakistan, Asian part of Russia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam took part in the APAOs.
List of APAOs
| Nr. | Year | Dates | Time Zone | Town | Country | Participating states | Observing states |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| I | 2005 | December 4–11 | UT+8 | Irkutsk | | 5 | - |
| II | 2006 | December 4–11 | UT+10 | Vladivostok | | 6 | - |
| III | 2007 | November 21–29 | UT+8 | Xiamen | | 4 | - |
| IV | 2008 | November 16–23 | UT+6 | Bishkek | | 6 | - |
| V | 2009 | October 7–14 | UT+9 | Damyang | | 9 | - |
| VI | 2010 | November 24 – December 5 | UT+7 / UT+9 | Tolikara |  | 8 | 1 |
| VII | 2011 | November 7–15 | UT+5 | Aktyubinsk | | 6 | - |
| VIII | 2012 | November 26 – December 4 | UT+6 | Cox's Bazar |  | 6 | - |
| IX | 2013 | November 23 – December 2 | UT+8 | Tomohon | | 6 | - |
| X | 2014 | November 24 – December 2 | UT+8 | Irkutsk, Listvyanka | | 5 | - |
| XI | 2015 | November 13–22 | UT+6 | Dhaka | | 4 | - |
| XII | 2016 | November 17–25 | UT+9 | Goheung | | 7 | - |
| XIII | 2017 | November 22–29 | UT+7 | Novosibirsk | | 4 | - |
| XIV | 2018 | November 24 – December 2 | UT+8 | Lijiang | | 4 | - |
See also
Other International Olympiads related to Astronomy:
- International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO, since 1959)
- International Physics Olympiad (IPhO, since 1967)
- International Geography Olympiad (IGeO, since 1996)
- International Junior Science Olympiad (IJSO, since 2004)
- International Earth Science Olympiad (IESO, since 2007)
- International Olympiad on Astronomy and Astrophysics (IOAA, since 2007)
References
- Gavrilov, Michael G. "Founding of the Asian-Pacific Astronomy Olympiad". Euro-Asian Academic Society. Retrieved 2011-02-27.