Zhytomyr-2015. All-Ukrainian Biology Olympiad

You can't step into the same river twice, but you can step into a river that has had time to change. Two years ago, I participated in judging the biology olympiad in Zhytomyr. Here is a photo report. I skipped last year, but this year I came to Zhytomyr anew. Something remained the same, something reached its final development, something changed. The corridors of the Faculty of Natural Sciences, for example, remained the same. Leaders: Dean, Rector, Chairman of the Jury. The opening is always a certain formality. There were minimal solemn words. Students and university staff spoke. They spoke very well. The program even included a Jewish freylekhs (a dance tune exemplified by "7-40"). Immediately after the opening - the theoretical round (consisting of two parts). In general, almost the entire olympiad is based on tests. Brutal ones. They worked in different ways... Jury members and team chaperones maintained order. The future winner... It was cold throughout Zhytomyr, including in the classrooms. Students who had completed the tests gradually dispersed. After some time, the number of "controllers" (jury members along with chaperones) and students became equal... ...and by the end, the numerical advantage was with the "controllers." In general, of course, it should be noted that the organization of work (as well as living and recreation) for the out-of-town jury members was incredible. We were guided and supported at every step. Below is the table that awaited us for breakfast. Each person has a table with an individually pre-ordered menu. To my surprise, we didn't pay anything for this food. Do you know the downside of such care? Nothing really depended on the visiting jury members... Practical round. I helped conduct a session that essentially consisted of an extensive test assignment on cranial nerves, nerve plexuses, etc. This assignment proved to be the most difficult for the students. Alas, almost no one remembers even the 12 pairs of cranial nerves. Not only do they not remember them, but they invent things randomly. A significant portion of the participants assumed that some cranial nerves exit through the foramen magnum. Of course, the most striking discovery is the "linguistic-writing nerve" found by one of the participants. The "official photographer" of the event. Thinking... ...or already relaxing. This office, like many others, is meticulously decorated. Here's a binocular in a pond... ...here are scorpions and spiders in hyacinths... ...and here's my "selfie" on the seabed. The boxes with collections are uniform in design but very different in content. Sometimes there is no Latin. Sometimes there are no insects themselves. I don't know which is worse. However, this is a local drawback. Many students worked like automatons. Here. A girl submitted her work and is waiting for the command to move to the next classroom. During a short break, the results can be checked. The next group. Remember the digital connectors on the back of the head in "The Matrix"? This is an improved, more modern model brought from Kharkiv. I went out to see what was happening in other rooms. This required the accompaniment of the jury chairman; otherwise, the security (like these long-legged girls) would not have allowed me into the rooms. Botany is studied here. A jury member on duty. And here - plant physiology. Cytology knowledge was tested in the computer lab. In fact, it was also a test... ...and again, the anatomy of the nervous system. It's almost over. After this - the third and final round. Computer testing... After the jury members had graded the coded works, they were taken to a concert. Deciphering the works and compiling the lists is the organizers' task. After that, the jury members who worked with the codes will only have to sign the attendance sheets, where not codes, but names will appear. And the concert was indeed good! It was dedicated to the 110th anniversary of the Zhytomyr Music College. In the photo below, the college director conducts the folk instrument orchestra. There were many official speeches here. In addition to various levels of leadership, the appearance of the archbishop and military personnel became a sign of the times. Naturally, the archbishop tried to establish an unambiguous connection between love for music and religiosity. However, the most interesting of the congratulatory speeches was the performance of a puppeteer from the puppet theater. At least his manipulations were quite transparent. Here I fell into a trap. After a certain number of performances, I realized that mainly compositions by more or less modern authors with Ukrainian and Russian surnames were being performed. I can listen to them with a polite expression, but they don't touch my soul. When this number was announced, I somehow missed the key words, remembering only some "our" surnames. Well, it means I have to wait for further experiments... They start playing. How good! How restrained! I'm even scared. If it's someone modern, they'll somehow spoil this sequence of repetitions of the same beautifully transforming phrase (from the perspective of someone whose aesthetic ideal belongs to the Baroque era). Imagine: this did not happen! Everything was built harmoniously, stylishly, and truly impeccably. I became so interested that I asked the neighbor for the program. Ah-ah-ah... Everything became clear. I missed it. It's simple: it's Purcell, Henry Purcell. Yes, England, late 17th century. After Lully, simultaneously with Corelli, and before Vivaldi (and, even more so, before Bach and Handel). It's shameful that I didn't know this piece. Returning home, I searched. It seems it was this rondo from the suite "Abdelazer." Naturally, I provided a link to a recording by other performers that I found online, but the Zhytomyr College orchestra also played more than decently. The "Baroque man" in me was completely satisfied. Star graduates of the college performed. For example, in the photo below, Handel's Xerxes sings almost in falsetto. Everything took place in a small but extremely stylish building of the philharmonic society. And, of course, the existence of such a college and such a philharmonic society is an important part of the cultural environment. I would say that the level of soloists was quite modest, but the level of orchestral culture was seriously high. To illustrate, I'll give another snippet. A student plays the finale of the Second Concerto by Saint-Saëns. Beautiful! But not everything can be good. And immediately after Saint-Saëns - the antics of representatives of the puppet theater, the style of which is well understood from the photograph (note: I managed to avoid using the word "vulgarity"!). A very decent brass band... I was being critical here, but the overall impression is genuinely good. Not everything could be brought to the same level, but the fact that musical culture is alive in Zhytomyr is obvious. Well, this is the last day. Museum of Antiquities. This is not just anything, but a colander! Two different types of cradles. I've become somewhat fond of children: my heart immediately warmed up as I imagined how crying children were rocked in them. Well, and summing up the results. This is our Anya Fedorova kissing the rector-philosopher. Anya turned out to be the first "below the line," i.e., without a prize-winning place. She received a certificate for one of the rounds. Misha Shlakhtyer took 3rd place. The geography of the winners reasonably corresponded to the composition of the visiting jury members (the main winner is from the Bogomolets Medical Institute, the representative from Zhytomyr is in second place). However, given what I wrote, this was certainly not the result of the efforts of the jury members representing out-of-town teams. It's good that all the awardees were brought onto the stage. Not everyone received the status of a winner (there are restrictions on the number of winners set by the ministry), but there are truly many intelligent students here. And finally, the group photo (with some losses; for example, Shlakhtyer had already left for a conference in Chernivtsi; as on my previous trip, the Kharkiv winner, who took third place, left before the closing). After such an event, one wants to reflect on why and how it was conducted this way and not otherwise. The last thing I would want is for what I am about to write to be seen as criticism of the organizers. Within the existing rules of the game (as far as one can guess), the organizers chose the best possible compromise. But those rules of the game and the framework within which the olympiad was organized can also be changed. The olympiad is held by order of the ministry. What is its purpose? It's probably not clearly formulated. An attempt to stimulate competition, to encourage the best. It is customary for one university to host the olympiad for three years and then pass it on to another. So, Zhytomyr has completed its three years and, it seems, has achieved perfection. Who will be next is not yet decided. We joked that the olympiad was conducted so well that it should be hung around the necks of the same organizers for another three years. Of course, this is not serious: if the approach "who carries it, gets driven" becomes the leading principle, the meaning of carrying one's burden is lost. So, the ministry organizes the olympiad. It doesn't give a single penny for it. The fact that there are large organizational expenses behind the olympiad is the problem of the university hosting it (jury members, frankly speaking, could have eaten at their own expense, but the expenses are not limited to this). This is a lot of work to prepare and check assignments; ideally, in a fair game, such work should be paid hourly. They don't pay. This means that the organizers in each university solve these problems somehow - and they should be thankful that they are not checked or punished! And why should a university host such an event? Prestige? Here, one needs to seriously calculate the costs, and much depends on how the university performs. Imagine: a faculty hosts an olympiad, bothers the administration with requests for help, and then it turns out that they performed poorly. Scandal! Alternative: and then it turns out that "their own" (at least those who knew the local capabilities and specific interests) took the prize places. Also a scandal! Well, yes, there is an out-of-town jury... I can well imagine (not only hypothetically) a situation where the jury is a team of lobbyists, each pulling in their own direction. Participants of the olympiad who see that they are not on equal terms leave dissatisfied. What prestige is there: a lot of effort, and in the end, damage to reputation... That is precisely why I believe that in Zhytomyr, they chose the optimal compromise (although unflattering to the visiting jury members). Very little depended on me and my colleagues: we performed representative and decorative functions... I disagree with the hypertrophy of the role of tests. Of course, tests that check creative thinking exist, but one cannot expect them to be made for an olympiad. In conclusion, a large part of the olympiad is checking students' memorization of a huge array of facts. How should an olympiad be conducted? I don't know exactly. For example, one cannot expect the ministry to not only issue an order but also allocate a budget for organizational expenses and hourly pay. It (quite reasonably, although sometimes clumsily) tries to shift responsibility to universities. Would any university want to host an olympiad itself? For what purpose? How will the university's goals affect the process itself? And in whose interests might the olympiad be held? Associations of specialized faculties? Employer associations? Public organizations? Charitable foundations? When the client of the olympiad is clear, only then can its purpose be understood, and in accordance with the purpose, its tasks can be clearly and transparently formulated. This should lead to transparent (and full, without any "let them figure it out themselves..." detours) funding. From this, the procedure becomes clear. This is how one can arrive at transparent results... I dream of an olympiad website where it is immediately visible: what task each jury member gave, and how they consider it correct to perform that task. How each participant coped with it and how their work was evaluated. How the grades were formed and what the outcome was... Will we live to see this? I don't know... And many thanks to Zhytomyr and the olympiad organizers!