On Dec. 3, a group of about 20 students joined for the second meeting of the new Biology Olympiad (Biolympiad) club. Junior Juliana Fenimore is the president of the club.

Fenimore has been interested in biology since her freshman year. “When I was in 9th grade, I wanted to see what biology was about, but you don’t get to start biology until 11th grade, so I wanted to provide this opportunity for kids of all ages [to explore biology],” Fenimore said.

Biolympiad is a club at many U.S. schools, with a national competition where high school students take a series of exams to qualify for a team of four students, who will compete in Lisbon in July 2021. The first open examination, which consists of over 10,000 students, will happen on Feb. 11, with the top 10% advancing to the semifinals.

During DHS Biolympiad meetings, members can collaborate through online resources such as Kahoot and Quizlet Live to study biology. “It’s not going to be too intense, but it’s really supposed to be a great way for kids to get involved,” Fenimore said.

Otherwise, members can choose to study at their own pace. “It’s completely do-it-yourself, so if you are not really interested in taking the test, but you want to learn more, then it’s a fun little way to test what you learn,” Fenimore said. 

According to Fenimore, Biolympiad is not affected negatively by online school. “A really good reason why I wanted to start the club this year was that it actually excels in the online format,” she said. “In a lot of other clubs, you might have a difficulty not having a connection with people, or not being able to build something… but with this, we provide the resources, and the dedicated students can do what they like with them.”

The resources used by the club and nationwide competition include textbooks and websites which follow a breakdown of seven different biology topics. Many questions will be taken directly from the books and will be categorized into biology topics:

• Animal Anatomy and Physiology – 25%
• Cell Biology – 20%
• Genetics and Evolution – 20%
• Plant Anatomy and Physiology – 15%
• Ecology – 10%
• Biosystematics – 5%
• Ethology – 5%.