All six Taiwanese participants in the 20th International Junior Science Olympiad, which was held in Thailand and ended yesterday, won gold medals, which put Taiwan in first place at the competition.
A total of 304 students from 54 countries and regions participated in the olympiad this year, with Taiwan sending two students each from three different junior-high schools. The Taiwanese team included Wu Ssu-chien (吳思謙) and Yan Tzu-chiao (顏子喬) from Taipei Municipal Chien Kuo High School; Chan Wei-chun (詹緯濬) and Lai Ching-yu (賴敬宇) from Taipei Municipal Dunhua Junior High School, and Hung Ching-cheng (洪靖承) and Su Cheng-hsuan (蘇程玹) from Tainan Municipal Jian Sing Junior High School.
Yan also scored highest overall among all participants in the competition.
Photo courtesy of the Ministry of Education
Commenting on the win, Yan said he was driven by his interest in science, and said that personal interest in the subject was key to his success. Reading instructions carefully and not rushing is also very important, he said.
The members of Taiwan’s team were chosen by a selection committee and coached by National Taiwan Normal University professors Lu Chia-jung (呂家榮), Lu Kuo-tung (呂國棟), Chang Yung-ta (張永達) and Fu Tzu-yi (傅祖怡), and assistant professor Liu Yi-hsin (劉沂欣). The team flew to Bangkok for the competition on Nov. 30, and returned on Wednesday.
The six students would each receive a recommendation for entrance to a top high school or junior college, as well as receiving a NT$200,000 scholarship, Ministry of Education official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said.
Taiwan has participated in the Olympiad every year it was held since 2004, and to date has won 97 gold medals, 17 silver medals and two special awards for individual student experiments. It has also won two gold medals, one silver medal and two bronze medals for group experiments, 12 best theory awards, nine highest total score awards and has been ranked as the top country or region in the competition 12 times.
A drunk woman was sexually assaulted inside a crowded concourse of Taipei Railway Station on Thursday last week before a foreign tourist notified police, leading to calls for better education on bystander intervention and review of security infrastructure. The man, surnamed Chiu (邱), was taken into custody on charges of sexual assault, taking advantage of the woman’s condition and public indecency. Police discovered that Chiu was a fugitive with prior convictions for vehicle theft. He has been taken into custody and is to complete his unserved six-month sentence, police said. On Thursday last week, Chiu was seen wearing a white
The Taoyuan Flight Attendants’ Union yesterday vowed to protest at the EVA Air Marathon on Sunday next week should EVA Airway Corp’s management continue to ignore the union’s petition to change rules on employees’ leave of absence system, after a flight attendant reportedly died after working on a long-haul flight while ill. The case has generated public discussion over whether taking personal or sick leave should affect a worker’s performance review. Several union members yesterday protested at the Legislative Yuan, holding white flowers and placards, while shouting: “Life is priceless; requesting leave is not a crime.” “The union is scheduled to meet with
‘UNITED FRONT’ RHETORIC: China’s TAO also plans to hold weekly, instead of biweekly, news conferences because it wants to control the cross-strait discourse, an expert said China’s plan to expand its single-entry visa-on-arrival service to Taiwanese would be of limited interest to Taiwanese and is a feeble attempt by Chinese administrators to demonstrate that they are doing something, the Mainland Affairs Council said yesterday. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) spokesman Chen Binhua (陳斌華) said the program aims to facilitate travel to China for Taiwanese compatriots, regardless of whether they are arriving via direct flights or are entering mainland China through Hong Kong, Macau or other countries, and they would be able to apply for a single-entry visa-on-arrival at all eligible entry points in China. The policy aims
The government yesterday donated US$200,000 to the Philippines to support post-earthquake relief and recovery efforts, following a powerful magnitude 6.9 quake that struck Cebu Province late last month, killing at least 72 people and injuring 559 others. The donation was presented earlier yesterday by Representative to the Philippines Wallace Chow (周民淦) to Cherbett Maralit, deputy resident representative of the Manila Economic and Cultural Office, at Taiwan’s representative office in Manila. In his remarks, Chow expressed concern for those affected by the magnitude 6.9 earthquake that struck the central Philippines on the night of Sept. 30. "We sincerely hope for the earliest possible
RSS