Shakthi Senarathne of Dharmaraja College, Kandy won a Bronze Medal at 29th International Biology Olympiad (IBO) held at Tehran. Iran from July 15 to 22. 270 students from 71 countries participated this event.G. A. H. G. Gunasinghe of St. Joseph Vaz College, Wennappuwa, Chamod Madushanka. Edirisinghe of Ananda College, Colombo, Udara N. Samaranayake Mahamaya Girls’ College, Kandy also participated as students and Prof Hiran Amarasekera, and Prof Jayantha Wijeyaratne participated as team leaders for this event.
The IBO is an annual competition for secondary school students. Their skills in tackling biological problems, and dealing with biological experiments are tested. Interest in biology, inventiveness, creativity and perseverance are necessary.
The IBO competition consists of a theoretical and an practical examination, each of six hours duration.
The Institute of Biology, Sri Lanka has been involved in selecting students to take part in IOB. Olympiad examinations are supported by Ministry of Education and National Science Foundation.
Selection of students to Biology Olympiad Competition was based on Sri Lankan Biology Olympiad 2017 (Theory examination) in Sinhala, Tamil and English media held in June 2017 at 6 Universities around the country: Colombo, Sri Jayewardeneprua, Peradeniya, Ruhuna, Jaffna and Eastern University. From this examination four students were selected among Gold and Silver medal winners after theory and practical training and examination at University of Sri Jayewardenpeura and University of Colombo.
