JEDDAH, 29 December 2005 — The Saudi students team, participating in the International Science Olympics, will start their qualification tests and training next Saturday in Jeddah, according to Saleh Al-Ghamdi, scientific activities supervisor at the Jeddah Education Department.
Qualified students will fly to Slovenia in April 2006 for the competition, he said.
Each directorate of education around the Kingdom has nominated one distinguished student to participate in a series of qualification tests to determine the participants for the mathematics portion of the international contest, he said.
All 30 high school nominees will arrive to Jeddah this weekend and will be hosted in the Youth Hostel before they start the first qualification test this Saturday.
The first test will qualify only 12 students, who will then take a training course and a second test to qualify the best six students.
The qualifying six students will undergo a thorough one-month training program of a high caliber in mathematics, thinking and brain abilities.
The Science Olympics is held every year in a different country around the world and it is divided in four categories: Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry and Computer Science.
Saudi Arabia has achieved the first place two years ago in the Physics section, which was held in Taiwan. Omar Al-Mutairi, a high school student, won the first award for his water conservation invention.
The Kingdom has participated in the international contest for several years, and has achieved many good awards in various fields.
