"Where do plastics accumulate in the ocean? What is the most likely end for the balloon that escapes and rises through the atmosphere? These are some of the questions that young students up to the third year of ESO have had to face in the V Spanish Youth Scientific Olympiad (OCJE), held on March 21 and 22.
More than 1600 young people from all over Spain participated in this multidisciplinary event in which they had to apply both their scientific knowledge and reasoning and logic skills to solve the 45 proposed questions.
The team Equipo Alfa, made up of Yahuan Dai and Dian Chiyeung Tam Artíles from the Arenas Almas center, were the winners of the autonomous phase of the Canary Islands, thus qualifying to represent their community in the national phase next July. The second place was obtained by the team El Despertar de Alan, formed by Alan Bea Hernanz and Daniel Nauzet Sosa La Camera from the IES Playa Honda center. After the winning team's resignation, the runner-up team did accept the challenge of representing the Canary Islands in the national phase.
The test, held in online format, included questions from all scientific branches (physics, chemistry, biology, mathematics, geology, technology, etc.) that the participants had to solve in pairs using all their ingenuity. The 17 selected teams will participate, in person, in the national phase to be held in July of this year in Barcelona, whose winners will attend the International Junior Science Olympiad 2024, in Romania.
The organization of the OCJE is in the hands of QuinteScience, a non-profit association that seeks to promote interest in science from the earliest ages and carry out scientific dissemination in all areas. In addition to organizing the Spanish Youth Scientific Olympiad, QuinteScience also participates in other initiatives to promote science among the youngest, such as informative talks or the QuinteQuest, a virtual scientific escape room aimed at ESO students from all over the country.
