About IESO

The International Earth Science Olympiad (IESO) is an annual Earth science competition for secondary school students. The IESO has been founded as one of the major activities of the International Geoscience Education Organization (IGEO), and countries worldwide with a strong emphasis on Earth science in their national curricula have supported the competition. Students who are winners of the respective national competitions are invited to participate in the IESO, and all interested countries are encouraged to contribute to the IESO.

Aims of the IESO

The IESO is intended to raise student interest in and public awareness of Earth science, to enhance Earth science learning of students, and to identify talented and gifted students in Earth science. The IESO was also established to encourage friendly relationships among young learners from different countries and to promote international cooperation in exchanging ideas and materials about Earth science and Earth science education. The IESO is aimed at improving Earth science teaching in schools.

Organization

The IESO is organized by an authorized institution(s) of one of the participating countries with cooperation of the IESO Coordinating Committee. The competition is held every year in the territory of the organizing country. The official language of the IESO is English.

Delegations

Each participating country sends its own delegation. Each national delegation has four participants and two mentors maximum respectively. Participants should not be older than 18 years on July 1st of the year of the Olympiad. The participants must not be university/college students. They can only be students of secondary school. If they have already graduated before the competition, the organizer must be informed about the date of their graduation. Participation in the competition is not possible for students who have already participated in the IESO and won a prize in a previous competition. The mentors must be specialists in Earth science and/or Earth science education and capable of serving as members of the International Jury. The mentors must be able to speak the official language of the IESO and thus translate the written examinations and related materials from English to the participants' native language.

The Competition

The competition consists of two parts: theoretical and practical examinations. The theoretical examination is presented in a set of Earth science problems that should be solved by participants within a period of no longer than six hours. The practical examination includes an experimental and/or field task(s) that should be completed by participants during a suitable period. The examinations are prepared by specialists in Earth science and/or Earth science education, who also provide solutions and evaluation guidelines. Participants are given the theoretical problems and experimental or field tasks in a written format and supplied with materials needed to solve the problems and conduct the experiments. Some of the experimental or field tasks are given by team basis. Each team consists of four or more members from different countries. Participants work together during experimental and/or field tasks and are graded together as a group. Other experimental tasks are given by individual basis. The participants are allowed to bring writing and drawing instruments and non-programmable calculators for the examinations.