Belarusian team took part in the 16th International Earth Science Olympiad (IESO 2023). This wonderful event spanned across five days from August 21 to 26 in an online format and had individual and group stages for contestants to complete. In the end, Belarusian team finished with two silver and three bronze medals.

IESO takes place annually starting from 2007 as one of the major activities of the International Geoscience Education Organization and its participants are students, who master their skills at the general secondary education level. IESO is designed to increase the interest of pupils, it aims to draw public attention to Earth sciences and seeks talented and gifted students in this field.

Arseniy Lysak, 11th grade student representing Minsk Gymnasium 13, took silver in individual, while 10th graders Alexandra Bogdanova from school #18 of Baranovichi and Vadim Ignatenko form Gymnasium #1 named after Zhores Alferov in Vitebsk ended up with the Bronze.

In the group round, a graduate of the Minsk State Regional Lyceum Yegor Rabtsevich as part of a team of schoolchildren from Estonia, Spain, France and the USA has won a silver medal. The bronze went to Vadym Ignatenko, a student of the 10th grade of the gymnasium No. 1 in Vitebsk named after Zhores Alferov, competing as part of a team of schoolchildren from Finland, Italy, Spain and the USA.

The leaders of the Belarusian team were the first provost of the Belarusian State University D.M. Kurlovich and the dean of the faculty of advanced training and retraining of the Institute of Additional Education V.V. Makhnach.

During the individual stage, young geographers demonstrated their knowledge of geology and paleogeography. Group stage participants were assigned to international teams to complete problem cases on climate change issues. All tasks were in English.

In total, 179 schoolchildren from 32 countries of the world took part in the competition.

The host countries of the International Olympiad this year were India, Israel and China.

According to the plans, next year, the Olympiad will take place offline (live meeting) in Beijing, China.