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| Source: anushankarn.blogspot.com |
Today the students went on a visit to the Nehru Science
Centre and Planetarium, a planned scientific and cultural excursion before the
examinations start. The centre was commissioned in 1977, and has become a hub for
the astronomy research community. The centre also hosts the “Discovery of India”
exhibition, inspired by the book of the same name by Pundit Jawaharlal Nehru,
the first Prime Minister of free India. Nehru was a key member of the movement against
colonialism, and the exhibition depicts the changes to India’s socio-political
scenario over time.
The students are now
in a full communication blackout for around four days, as the first examination
papers are now under review (see below), and clearly it is important that students
are not provided with any information that they could unfairly use to their
advantage. The blackout will end towards the end of Thursday, after they have
sat the theoretical examination. Students aren't even allowed contact with home during this time!
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| The meeting about to get underway |
Meanwhile, team leaders, organisers, academic staff and
observers have been in a closed IPhO international board meeting to ratify the
question paper for the experimental examination. This was a long process that
took the UK delegation almost 13 hours to be satisfied with the paper, although
some teams worked considerably longer to translate the paper (originally
written in English) into their native language. Obviously we can’t give any
details on what is included at this stage as the students will be sitting the
examination tomorrow (Tuesday), but an overview of the paper will follow in
tomorrow’s entry.
The process of ratification did involve many informal
discussions with delegates from other countries, including Puerto Rico, Denmark,
Columbia, Germany and Brazil, to name just a few.
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