Pretty clever! Fifth-grade students advance to the second round of the International Junior Science Olympiad (IJSO)

The International Junior Science Olympiad (IJSO) is a science competition that promotes the development of young talent in the natural sciences across disciplines, starting in 5th grade. The topics and questions are based on the everyday lives of children and teenagers. This school year’s theme was “Listen Up!”

Nine students worked hard on experiments as part of the 5th-grade GuFi Lab under the guidance of Jutta Töhl-Borsdorf. They investigated popping popcorn and learned the difference between sound, noise, and a bang. They used the physics app Phyphox to investigate swinging wine glasses with different water levels. There was also plenty of time for building and crafting: they constructed a model of a human ear using a cake pan and a sound box made from a potato chip can. Finally, everything had to be documented in a report.

Anna-Lena Griesler, Marlene Wagner, Justus Pöschl, and Robin Richter persevered, tackled these extensive and challenging tasks, and completed the first round.
Out of approximately 3,800 participants from all over Germany, Justus and Robin performed so well that they ranked 213th, thereby qualifying for the second round.
This round consisted of a challenging quiz with 24 multiple-choice questions covering the three natural sciences—biology, chemistry, and physics—which had to be completed within 45 minutes. The quiz is still being graded and will continue until the end of March.

If they qualify, the two will have to take a written exam in the third round in May. Since the fifth-graders will be competing against eighth-graders, their motto can only be, “Just participating is what counts.”

We congratulate everyone involved and are rooting for the two boys in the next round.