Draft:Olimpíada Nacional de Ciências

Not to be confused with the Indian competition, National Science Olympiad.

The National Science Olympiad (Portuguese: Olimpíada Nacional de Ciências, also known as ONC) is a Brazilian student competition held in schools across Brazil, aimed at students who are in 6th grade onwards (until 12th grade, or 3ª Série do Ensino Médio).

It is currently organized by the Federal University of Piauí, with the realization of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation of Brazil. The interdisciplinary olympiad was created with the goal of stimulating interest towards the study of natural and human sciences, while also identifying talented students in the applied areas, awarding them with gold, silver and bronze medals, and honorable mention certificates, and approximate tertiary education institutes with those of secondary education.

It is one of the main Science Olympiads of the country, being held every year since 2016 and involving millions of students in its most recent editions.

Structure

In its current structure, ONC is a competition organized in two stages:

• Primeira Fase: this stage consists in a multiple-choice test, held on-line or in person, containing 20 (twenty) questions to be solved in 2 hours. The questions go over topics related to Astronomy, Physics, Biology, Chemistry and History. All subscribed students take part in this stage, which is eliminatory and does not define awards, apart from participation certificates, which are made available on-line at the end of the olympiad.
• Segunda Fase: this stage contains a subjective test, comprising of a theoratical part and an experimental part (which has not yet occured in any edition as of 2024). The former contains 10 (ten) subjective questions, going over the same topics as Primeira Fase. The latter, when it happens, will contain 3 (three) questions, being worth 40% of the exam's grade. The questions are to be solved in two hours, just as in the previous stage, and are worth a total of 100 points. The subscribed students who performed best in Primeira Fase get to participate in this stage, and the participants are eligible for awards depending on the score.

Participation is organized in levels, separated by school year:

• Level A: 6th and 7th grade;
• Level B: 8th and 9th grade;
• Level C: 10th grade (1ª série do Ensino Médio);
• Level D: 11th grade (2ª série do Ensino Médio);
• Level E: 12th grade (3ª série do Ensino Médio) and 13th grade (4ª série do Ensino Técnico).

Awarding

ONC 2020 bronze medal. The medal design is still the same as of 2023, with the only variation being on the year.

The competition awards its best-performing students with gold, silver and bronze medals, and distributes honorable mention certificates to the students who answer 50% of the Segunda Fase test correctly.

The olympiad sends medals to the schools of the winners of the competition. Because of ambiental concerns, the olympiad does not print certificates to all schools with participants or winners.

The ten best students in each level also win a trip to the headquarters of MCTI, in Brasília. There occurs a ceremony which awards gold medals to the present students and special prizes, depending on the contest's regulamentation. The single best student in each level, apart from the ceremony, gets to visit Alcântara Space Center, in the state of Maranhão, Brazil.

References

[[Category:Science competitions]]