This year’s premier event for high school biologists is in Armenia from July 10.
Hillcrest High School student Janet Guo is one of four New Zealand students who has qualified to participate.
“Science is conventionally still quite a male-dominated field and so like it provided confidence for me to go deeper and be like, ‘oh yes, I can do this too.'”
Guo says science brings her happiness and has shaped her world view.
“It helps me think rationally… especially biology, I think it’s helped me understand how to perceive the world through literally reading about like sensory receptors.”
Guo said fundraising for the trip is eating into her study time.
“For us, it’s quite distressing I guess… it’s been multiple 10 hour days for a lot of us and to feel like that might be taken away from us because of the immense costs, like $13,000 is a lot for all of us, I’m not from a wealthy family,” Guo said.
The Talented School Students Travel Award was put on hold by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment because of Covid-19 and is now being reviewed.
The scheme began in 2003 with a budget of $30,000 per year and grew to $250,000 per year until the fund was paused.
Some funding went to applicants to cover costs to attend competitions virtually.
The remaining $110,000 from the 2020/2021 budget for the scheme was spent on other initiatives from the MBIE Science in Society portfolio, including the New Zealand in Space exhibition, development of science resources for students to access during Covid-19 lockdowns and funding for the Science Media Centre to respond with information to media during the pandemic.
“We feel now it is timely to assess whether changes are needed to ensure a broader range of opportunities are available to students,” an MBIE spokesperson said in a statement.
“We also want to see whether different types of opportunities should be offered as part of the award, and these mightn’t necessarily be international travel opportunities.”
The Government agency said Covid-19 still makes travel high-risk.
“Logistics are unable to be safely managed for students travelling at this time,” the spokesperson said.
MBIE said, “locally relevant initiatives within New Zealand are being created to make the most of the country’s excellent research and learning opportunities.
“In the future, select international opportunities may also be supported to provide a wider variety of experiences, once the logistics can be safely managed.”
A draft research paper from New Zealand International Biology Olympiad chairperson Dr Angela Sharples includes reports from former participants that the local competition and international competition influenced their decision to pursue careers in science after high school.
“Programmes like this give students the confidence to consider themselves as scientists so they’re creating links through our programme in New Zealand, we work with universities throughout New Zealand to link them up with top researchers in biological scientists and then when they represent New Zealand, they link up with students who are also interested in those,” Sharples said.
“They’ll be their colleagues working on collaborative science research later in life so we’re creating a network of students with a passion for science who will contribute to our economy, now we don’t always know in what way, we don’t have a crystal ball as to what the latest scientific research will be, but we do know that these are our top students.”
Sharples said the students who have been selected for the New Zealand team have been working towards it for more than two years.
“They’ve worked so hard so to fall over at the last minute because of the lack of funds and to have the fund on hold for Covid when the borders are now open and these students are travelling to compete face to face, that’s pretty disappointing.
“I would be absolutely gutted if these students can’t go through… it’s life changing to represent New Zealand in a competition like this with over 70 countries competing.”