KING’S Ely A Level Biology students have entered the annual Biology Olympiad competition and faced the gruelling two hour online paper.
This is a national competition with over 5,000 entries of those students predicted A or A* grades, hence the competition is fierce. King’s Ely Senior Biology department staff were delighted that Eris Guo, Ellen Dart and James Walton were highly commended, Panupong Pornsirianant, Aleksander Kasprzak and Phoebe Pennington received Bronze Medals and certificates. Not only did Rosamond van Wingerden and Paul Daehn achieve Gold Medals, placing them in the top 1% nationally, but they also progress to the next round of the competition.
If Rosamond and Paul do well in the second round, they may travel to the University of Warwick for four days over the Easter holidays for further practical and written assessments. They may then go onto represent Great Britain at the International Biology Olympiad, which takes place in Hanoi, Vietnam in July 2016.
A representative from the Royal Society of Biology commented about the competition: “The British Biology Olympiad challenges and stimulates students with an interest in Biology to expand and extend their talents. In offering a wider syllabus than A-level, it allows students to demonstrate their knowledge and to be suitably rewarded and publicly recognised by the award of medals, certificates and other prizes. It is hoped that competing in the Olympiad will encourage students already interested in this valuable, wide-ranging and rewarding subject to continue their study beyond A-level.”
All medal winners will be invited to an awards ceremony at the Royal Institution at the beginning of July.