Two teams represented Iran in the competition, convened in Tehran from October 16 to 26, coincident with the International Year of Astronomy (IYA2009).
The Iranian A team scored three gold and two silver medals and took the first place in the competition.
Among the members of the A team, Mehrnush Shafi’izadeh-Abadeh, Hamid-Reza Akbari, and Shahabeddin Sarmashqi won gold and Shadi Farahzadi as well as Ramyad Hadidi get silver medals.
The Iranian B team also won one gold, two silver and one bronze in the contest.
Nima Chartab-Soltani gained gold, Nilufar Nilfrushan and Ali Aliyari received silver and Mohsen Rezaei-Zadeh grabbed bronze medals, and all were included in B team.
Sepehr Arbabi, Hossein Hakimi-Pajuh, and Atefeh Ramezan were the team leader.
The team from India finished second, winning two gold, two silver and one bronze.
A number of 20 teams from Belarus, Indonesia, Poland, Bangladesh, Greece, Brazil, Lithuania, China, Sri Lanka, South Korea, India, Cambodia, Slovakia, Bolivia, Serbia, Romania, Kazakhstan, and Thailand, as well as Ukraine participated in the event.
The teams were mostly composed of five students.
Organized by the Ministry of Education and the Young Scholars Club, the ten-day competition was in two theoretical and practical sections.
The theoretical competition included short and long questions and the practical one included observations and data analysis.
There were 15 short and 2 long questions for the theoretical part. For the practical part, there was a set task on: 1) observation; 2) paper-based practical problem; 3) computer-based problem; and 4) planetarium simulation or combination of the four, for which there was a five hour time limit, IOAA.info reported.
The theoretical part made 60 percent of the total marks, and the practical part made the rest of the 40 percent. The practical solutions consisted of theoretical analysis (plan and discussion) and practical execution. The solution to each problem consisted of an answer and its complete justification.
The first IOAA was held in Chiang Mai, Thailand, on November 2007, and the second was in Bandung city, capital of West Java Province in Indonesia, on August 20 and the Fourth IOAA is going to be convened in China.
Iranian students took two first places in the first Olympiad and a third place in the second Olympiad.
The IOAA is a yearly competition on astronomy and astrophysics for high school students. Each member country takes turn to host this event.
Promotion of interest of high school students in astronomy and astrophysics is the main purpose of the competition. This competition is a good venue for students to interact and make friends. It is intended to increase cultural understanding among students and create closer cooperation in future researches.
The International Year of Astronomy 2009 is a global effort initiated by the International Astronomical Union and UNESCO to help the citizens of the world to rediscover their place in the Universe through the day- and night-time sky, and thereby engage a personal sense of wonder and discovery.
The IYA2009 is a global celebration of astronomy and its contributions to society and culture, highlighted by the 400th anniversary of the first use of an astronomical telescope by Galileo Galilei.
The aim of IYA2009 is to stimulate worldwide interest, especially among young people, in astronomy and science under the central theme “The Universe, Yours to Discover”.
SN/SJ
MNA
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