Daily Newsletter

Issue 4 | Wednesday, 11 July 2012

Todays Weather Forecast

Late morning and early afternoon thundery showers.

26 to 30 degrees Celsius. Humidity: 60%- 95%

Program for Wednesday , 11 July 2012

Jury Members and Observers
06:30 - 08:00
08:30 - Late

Breakfast (Rainforest Caf)

Vetting of Theoretical Tests (NIE Blk 5)

The ubiquitous IBO 2012

Pangolin, Manis
(means sweet in Malay)

Its Time To Be Practical

After a day of settling in, competitors had to face the first of their
challenges - the Practical Tests. Early in the morning, students were
shuttled off to the National Institute of Education, where they undertook
four laboratory tasks designed to test their abilities in the following
fields: Animal Anatomy and Ecology, Microbiology and Biochemistry, Cell
and Molecular Biology and last but not least, Plant Diversity, Anatomy
and Physiology.

Student Competitors
07:30 - 08:15
00:00 - 08:45
09:00 - 10:15
11:00 - 14:30

Breakfast (PGPR)
Bus departs (PGPR)
Visit to Faculty of Science, NUS
Visit to Jurong Bird Park and Lunch

15:45 - 16:45

Visit to NEWater Plant

00:00 - 17:00

Bus departs NEWater

18:30 - 20:00

Dinner (PGPR)

While waiting for further instructions, Raymond from

Team USA looks pensive as he mentally prepares
himself for the IBO practical tests.

Lab Inspection Tour

Donning multi-colored lab coats, competitors filed into orderly rows behind
their guides. Beyond aesthetics, the colors cluster competitors into four
groups. Each group has one representative from each team and rotate
through each practical task in four shifts lasting the entire day.

A family of IBO 2012 Pangolins greets visitors at the entrance to NTUs lush campus

Knowing me, knowing youaha ah!

Good luck and good bye - competitors marching off to their first
practical test of the day. This would be the last time they would
see their team mates for the next 9 hours or so.

Question: What is the craziest thing you have ever done?

Parachuting through 4000m of pure air (Christian Vahlensieck, Germany)
I once ate a raw onion as a dare (Hafsa Shahab, Pakistan)
Coming to IBO (Jurga Mituzaite, Lithuania)
I stood on a ledge and sang twinkle twinkle little star in a shopping mall (Nol

Planting seeds of
wisdom - Lovingly
germinated by
Dr Shawn Lum of
NIE, the Plant
Diversity practical
test featured the
seedling of
Singapores de
facto national
fruit - the durian.

Swddinwvdhipong, Singapore)

Go to the beach wearing only underwear (Anderson De Sousa Jorge, Brazil)

Skinny dipping a Danish graduation tradition (Jesper Levring, Denmark)
Flashed my ass in public (guess who?)

Xiang Xi, an 18 year old from China who just graduated from Walter Johnson
High School in Maryland, USA. He flew in from the US and made special
arrangements to volunteer for the IBO during his summer break. He is the team
guide for Turkmenistan.
Why did you volunteer?
Earlier this year, I competed in the US Science Olympiad,
a competition that saw over 6000 teams participating. In
addition, I took the initiative to get my high school to
register and participate in the US Biology Olympiad, of
which I was a semi-finalist from my school. Through this
experience, I discovered that I had a deeper passion for
biology beyond the competitions and I wanted to pursue
my interest through various avenues. I volunteer so that I
can give back to the organizations.
What do you hope to get out of this experience?
An experience I would never relinquish otherwise!

Meet the volunteers

Sue Ann, youngest volunteer at age 16, team guide of Czech
Republic. She is waiting to commence studies at the United
World College in the Fall.
Why did you volunteer?
I was looking for opportunities to volunteer and I found this
on the internet. I did not know about the IBO prior to this and
I was attracted to the fact that it is such a large scale,
international event.

A brief relief - Janelle San

Juan (middle) from Australia
chats animatedly while
Belgian Team member Axelle
Hue (left) is all ears.
Competitors take a break
with snacks and drinks
before the next test

A serious game - Netherlands

Team Member Kyra Defourny
carefully counts mahjong (a
popular Chinese game) chips
in the statistical segment of
the Animal Anatomy and
Ecology practical. According to
Dr Shirley Lim, the task
markers were amused when
they were sorting out
submission envelopes and
heard a strange, rattling
sound - apparently one of the
students had submitted
his/her mahjong chips along
with the answer sheets!

Nikhil Buduma from Team USA peers

curiously at a durian seedling - a sight
uncommon even to native Singaporeans,
who are more familiar with the spiky fruit
itself!

While competitors were occupied with their

tests, jury members took a well deserved break
from a gruelling day of vetting and translation.
They enjoyed a tour of a special desalination
plant which recycles wastewater into drinking
water - the NEWater Plant, as well as popular
tourist spot, Jurong Bird Park.
When asked what they liked most about their
trip, South African Jury Member Sooklachar
Naidoo was all praises for the Bird Park,
especially the Birds and Buddies show. Thats
the best part he insisted, You have to get the
children to watch it!.

Jury members
Dharmendra Shah,
Anupama Ronad and P.V.
Balaji from India are all
smiles after a fun,
activity-packed day

This was met with a chorus of agreement from

fellow jury members Dharmendra Shah,
Anupama Ronad and P. V. Balaji from India.
Gesturing animatedly, Dharmendra said he yelled
Come on, choose me! when they were picking
audience members to participate in the show,
and ended up being selected to hold a loop while
a trained Scarlet Macaw flew through it. That was
certainly the highlight of his trip!

One of the founding fathers of the IBO,

The Netherlands Hans Morelis beams
for the camera; he remarked that he
had seen many parks, but the Bird Park
was particularly fine. His favorite part
of the trip? The Lory Loft, the worlds
largest walk-in Lory Flight Aviary. He
was impressed by how close you could
get to the birds, how they were
unafraid when people approached
them and the fact that there was so
many! He made head-bobbing motions
to illustrate how the lories caressed
each other. You could walk among the
birds, enthused Hans, It was much
better than watching them from afar.

Jury members were treated to a tour of

Singapores NEWater treatment facility, where
they enjoyed a presentation of Singapores
water needs and the methods of water
purification used at the plant.
The water tastes good, I think! said Sulev
Kuuse, Jury member from Estonia.
It was amazing, said Bayarmaa Jambalsuren,
Jury member from Mongolia.

Getting to Know You

To celebrate the end of the first part of the IBO competition, the student competitors enjoyed a Social Night. Senior
guides Pearlyn and Ramya planned the programme for the night, and the Multipurpose Hall at PGPR was converted into a
theatre of sorts. Kicking off the festivities was viewing of submissions for the Bio Video Competition, with self-made
entries submitted by Australia, Japan and Slovakia. Under the motto We love Biology, Slovakias video exhibited a stylish
film noir feel, Australia went for an inspirational tone while Japans short film about alternative uses of the well-known
Campbell biology textbook (or Campbible) cracked everyone up as the team displayed how to use the textbook as a
bulletproof vest, a massage tool and even as a proposal gift to fellow Biology fans!

South African Jury member

Sooklachar Naidoo relaxing with
fellow jury member from
Pakistan Zahid Mukhtar outside
the jury room

After the Practical , how do you feel?

How do you feel? we asked competitors as they

exited the laboratories. Said Hannah Mugford from
Australia: I feel a mixture of everything! and
lamented that the last test was really long - not a
surprise, since competitors spend at least 1.5 hours
per lab task! Added fellow competitor Juan Manuel
from Argentina, The practical tested our
imagination and speed - of which we are sure
competitors have plenty.

Dont let those cheery grins fool you - competitors Parisha

(middle) from South Africa, Francisco (left) from Spain and
Alzbeta (right) from Slovakia were exhausted after their 3rd
laboratory task, which was at the Plant Diversity, Anatomy and
Physiology laboratory. Said Alzbeta: It was not what I
expected! while Francisco opined: It was hard, but I thought it
would be harder. Parisha felt that the Plant Diversity task was
better than the other two (Cell and Microbology) tests, and
made us laugh when she commented that the seedling of the
notoriously pungent durian fruit tree smelt funny!.

Well Done, Everyone!!

Brimming with anticipation, jury members waited with bated breath for their young charges to appear.
When the students finally came into sight, a mix of emotions - excitement, relief and elation infused both
jury members and competitors as they made a beeline for one another. Reunited, they took this opportunity
to discuss the questions of the practical, and many jury members reassured students that no matter the
outcome, they are all winners in their eyes!

After students were given some time to vote for their favorite video, Team Singapore took the stage with the song
Home, a National Day song composed in 1998. Electrifying performance after performance followed, ending with a
creative, biology-themed dance by the team guides who adapted the song YMCA to one entitled GTCA, standing for
the bases in DNA. The hall was filled with laughter, catcalls and exuberant cheers long into the night, and every student
left with newfound admiration for their fellow competitors - not only were their friends smart, they were also incredibly
talented!

Its over! chirps SuMin Yoon from Team New

Zealand as she high-fives her jury member.

Team Singapores post-practical conference

We spotted Team Japan sporting their traditional garments and asked

team member Tomohiro Maeda about their item for the night. Said
Tomohiro, Well be doing a dance about the product ATP, and a
traditional Japanese dance called the Hyottoko. How long have they
practised their dances? Just a little bit! said a modest Tomohiro.

Audience members wave their hands in the air from side

to side in a show of support for Team Singapores heartfelt
singing.

Birthday surprise - After

presenting a hilarious,
side-splitting
homemade music video
Bad Project, a spoof
of Lady Gagas popular
Bad Romance, Team
USA announced that it
was team member Jerry
Lei Dings birthday that
day, spurring the
audience to sing a
happy birthday song in
response!

YES! Rhogerry Deshycka from Team

Indonesia pumps his fists into the air,
clearly pleased by what he heard from
comparing notes with his jury and team
members.

Getting some TLC

(Tender Loving Care):
Anderson De Sousa
Jorge from Brazil gets a
hug and pat on his back
from his jury member.