Czech astronomical olympiad

Czech Astronomical Olympiad is organised for pupils of elementary schools and students of secondary schools in Czech republic. It is very popular among younger pupils because of unusual possibility of using all available information resources (except of help of other persons) and practical observational tasks in correspondence round. After final round of categories EF and GH follows 2-day workshop to select candidates for the International astronomical olympiad. Czech Astronomical Olympiad is supported by Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports as a science competition in the category A.

History of olympiad

Astronomical Olympiad was first published in the academic year 2003/2004 in the category EF for the 8th and 9 grade elementary schools and the classes to multi-grammar schools. In the 4th year 2006/2007 grew by category for the 6th GH and 7 grade elementary schools and the 5th year 2007/2008 on the category of CD-ROM for 1st and 2 years of secondary school.

School round

School round takes 40 minutes and it solves the pupils in the school under the supervision of teachers or in the astronomical circle close to some of the observatories. School round run from mid-September to mid-December.

Correspondence round

The role of correspondence stage resolves competing alone at home, to draw up to 2.5 months (January - one-half of March).

Final round

Best participants of correspondence round are invited to the National Finals (usually 25 participants in each category). Finals are held in Ostrava (category CD) and Prague (categories EF, GH) in the second half of May.

Workshop

Workshop for best participants of CD and EF categories follows at the observatory in Valašské Meziříčí in mid-June. Candidates for International astronomy olympiad are selected here.

The International Astronomical Olympiad

The International Astronomical Olympiad (IAO) takes 9 days and takes place usually between the 23rd September and 22 November. The XII. IAO in 2007 brought a Czech team silver and from this year's XIII. IAO two bronze medals.

Other astronomical competitions in Czech republic

Astronomical correspondent competition

Astronomická korespondenční soutěž

Window into space

Okno do vesmíru

See also

Czech Astronomical Society (in Czech)

cs:Astronomická olympiáda