In a conversation with the Oeiras Valley, Maria de Jesus Fernandes, president of the Order of Biologists, spoke about the 2023 Portuguese Biology Olympiads. The final round will be held in Oeiras, on April 21, 22 and 23.
During the interview, she spoke about how the partnership with the Municipality of Oeiras is “fundamental” for this event “to be possible” since it involves 50 young people from various parts of the country. Throughout the conversation, Maria de Jesus Fernandes also highlighted the “concrete support, both from INIAV and ITQB NOVA” in conducting the practical tests within their laboratories and institutions, but also in preparing the finalists who will represent Portugal abroad.
The objectives of the Portuguese Biology Olympiads were also discussed. Besides the tests themselves, the aim is to “help form responsible citizens, who are democratically integrated, who practice critical thinking and who are equipped with scientific knowledge.”
Read the full interview which introduces the work of biologist Maria de Jesus Fernandes, who has been working for almost 30 years at the Instituto da Conservação da Natureza e das Florestas (Institute for Nature Conservation and Forests) and who is preparing to retire in order to dedicate herself full-time to her position as President of the Portuguese Order of Biologists.
The 2023 Portuguese Biology Olympiads will be held on April 21, 22 and 23. During these days, what is specifically going to happen?
With high school juniors and seniors participating, as well as some sophomores, Oeiras will receive 50 young people from all over the country during this time, including some who come from the islands. And so, it’s students in the most advanced years of high school who are participating in the last round of the Portuguese Biology Olympiads.
They were selected in the first two rounds from approximately 10,000 students who participated this year and who took online tests. From the pool of all the competing young people, 50 are selected. These 50 will take the tests in person, and the practical tests specifically in a laboratory. For example, they could be given an octopus and they would have to dissect it and identify all the parts. It can be any living being or any part of it, for them to work on. The products used are part of the food industry and they are therefore obtained from a conventional market. Obviously, there is a deontological issue here that should be pointed out: we are not going to sacrifice other living beings. What we want is for the students to go into a working laboratory setting, for them to handle, use and manipulate pipettes, micropipettes, microscopes, the entire array of instruments that may exist in a biology laboratory and which they should reasonably know how to use. The practical test takes place during one morning and is conducted in one of our supporting institutes. In the afternoon they have the theoretical test.
On top of that, they will spend two nights and two days in Oeiras, which will give them a lot of time for socializing and for parody (paródia), to use a very Portuguese expression. We hope this is what it’s going to be like, because this part of the experience, the friendships that can be made and the social interactions are also very important and we believe that they are a fundamental part of this process called Olympiads. It’s not just science for the sake of science. This is indeed a science competition. Motivating Portuguese youths for science is something that matters to us, in this specific case, for biological science. However, we also find it important that they become attentive students, curious, that they enjoy researching, investigating and learning more, and also that they know how to enjoy this thing called social interaction and how to make the most of it.
This year we are not in the same position as the year before, fortunately. Last year, which was the first year we held this activity in Oeiras, we had just come out of a pandemic. All of us, the students too. And it was a plunge into a face-to-face interactive activity with 60 or 70 people. It was an immense joy.
Do you think that the scientific program provided by the Municipality of Oeiras for students and teachers is an incentive to participate in this event?
The parallel activities are extremely important. We don’t want to incentive young scientists to be locked in their cocoons. We want our youths to be citizens, full-fledged citizens, and fully exercising that capacity. All the activities that allow them to become better integrated or to create better relationships with others and this experience as a whole are fundamental. Young people come from all over the country and, sometimes, the fact that they come by train from Castelo Branco or that they come from the islands to participate in this event is, in itself, a lifelong learning experience.
Everything plays a part in this event, and in helping it reach its objectives. Above all, these goals include helping to train responsible citizens in citizenship, citizens who are democratically integrated, who practice critical thinking, and who are equipped with knowledge, scientific knowledge in this case, but with a critical looking eye towards society. To develop this critical capacity, it is essential that they are accessible and open to other ways of life and living, and cultural events are fundamental for this. In this regard, we must thank Oeiras Valley and the municipality immensely, for welcoming us and for providing us and our young people, especially our young people, with a myriad of initiatives that they will be able to benefit from.
How important is the partnership with the Municipality of Oeiras and the county’s institutions for the organization of the Olympiads?
For this event to be possible – involving 50 young people from all over the country and keeping them in one place for three days so that they can, on the one hand, take the tests that are part of this initiative and are its main objective, but also, on the other hand, get acquainted with their surroundings, the territory and the culture within it, benefit from it and socialize with each other – it is essential that we manage to have good partnerships with the municipalities and with the science research institutions. We are just a professional body, the centerpiece that organizes this, that bridges the gap between the Directorate-General for Education and the Ministry of Education for the organization and promotion of the various Science Olympiads in which we are involved.
We bridge the gap between the international organizations because then our youths who are selected go abroad. And we bring back many medals! In terms of size, we are a very small country, but then we bring home many medals with these achievements. Our youths are very, very gifted, very committed, they have a very good command of English and sometimes even other languages. They establish fantastic relationships with young people from other countries, from Iran to Peru, to any others. Last year the event was in Armenia and we brought back medals. We always do and that is extremely positive and interesting. This year, four of our competitors, the top four, will go to Dubai and another four will go to Madrid to participate in the Ibero-American Olympiads. There is also always this final prize, the possibility for our Olympians to participate in the International Biology Olympiad.
How can schools encourage and prepare their students to participate in the Portuguese Biology Olympiads?
It goes back a long way, the work that has been put into this. Over the years, more than a partnership, but a close collaboration has been established and a kind of trust agreement between teachers and the Order of Biologists. The teachers see the Order and the organization of these Olympiads as having great value, which justifies their commitment. There is a clear demand for what we have to offer – so much that, when we are a few days late disclosing the rules and conditions, it’s the teachers who reach out to us.
In 2022, there were about 800 schools involved. It is a very considerable number. It is up to the teachers to mobilize their students, that ability is on their side. Of course, there are many students who are also already trying to participate because they participated in 9th grade, because they participated in 10th grade, and because now they want to qualify to be able to go out there and enjoy this experience that is spending a fantastic weekend, in an incredible place, doing things they like. More than the test result – although the test result is obviously relevant since we all like to win – the students go because the pleasure of being there is rewarding enough.
If the Portuguese Biology Olympiads ended today, I think schools would react negatively. We have about 10,000 students this year, from around 600 schools.
How can the Portuguese Biology Olympiads contribute to the development of science in Portugal?
The Olympiads themselves are a drop in the ocean, but they stimulate the interest of young people at a very early age. I am sure that the students who go through this experience will always follow high education degrees in the areas of life sciences, whether it is in medicine, biology or in other similar disciplines. And they are usually very good students, generally with other competencies from the point of view of citizenship. Therefore, they are also individuals very well integrated in society and who will certainly help the development of science, of citizenship and ultimately of society itself. It seems to me that they are thereby a good contribution, although a small one. 10,000 thousand young people is a small pool of participants across the whole country, but it is not a negligible number.
The Municipality of Oeiras is home to extremely relevant scientific research institutions and, in the specific case of the Biology Olympiads, we have received, for some years now, specific support from both INIAV and ITQB NOVA, allowing the practical exams to take place in their laboratories and within their institutions. They open their doors on Saturdays so that this can happen, preparing materials and making them available, and they also prepare the exams so that everything is as impartial as possible. The confidentiality of the tests needs to be guaranteed, the students can’t know their contents, and all of this needs to be correctly coordinated down to a T, beyond any doubts, as much as is feasibly possible.
These institutions have also supported the training and preparation of students who go abroad. This year, at the end of May, there will be preparation exams for those who were selected in April and who will then represent the country. It’s a total of eight students who will have laboratory training at the Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência. They will be giving us direct support in this scientific area in Oeiras by receiving these students for the tests and then preparing the finalists to go and represent the country abroad. This is fantastic and obviously very relevant.
Besides these previously mentioned ones, there is a number of other higher education institutions that support us in the preparation of the students: we have the support of the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon, the University of Aveiro and the Politécnico de Leiria.
What expectations do you have for this year’s Portuguese Biology Olympiads?
My expectations are very high. Even though we have the clear notion that last year we came from a completely different and unique social emergency – unique for us adults, but much more so for young people – and strange, it was a fantastic edition. It was a fantastic few days. I remember us walking through the garden under the amazing sunshine and the youths enjoying all of it very deeply, very intensely. I hope it will be a similar experience from that point of view – very enriching scientifically, but also from a social and human point of view, very remarkable and important for their lives.
To conclude, I would like to ask you for a brief summary of your professional background.
Obviously, I am a biologist. I graduated from the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon in the early 1980s. After that I did many things. I was a high school teacher, I was a public administration officer and I have been for almost 30 years at the Instituto da Conservação da Natureza e das Florestas, where I also did a little bit of everything.
Today I am almost on the verge of retirement. I am preparing for that in order to be able to dedicate myself a little bit more, full-time, to this task which is very noble and very absorbing. I have finished many post-graduate degrees, a Master’s, etc. It is a whole other range of curricula, but less relevant from the point of view of my experience and my professional life.
I am intrinsically a biologist, it is glued to my body, it is glued to my eyes with which I see the world, with which I analyze the landscape, with which I see people, with which I even behave. In fact, I couldn’t have been anything else. I feel very fulfilled with my professional choices. I have done things throughout my life that I am very proud of, either as a teacher in the various stages of teaching I have gone through over these 40 something years of my professional life, or as a technician and a leader in the conservation of nature and forests area. There are several projects I am immensely proud of and people I have met, with whom I have crossed paths in my life, with whom I have shared, who have made me so rich and still do.
