IBO 2022 ARMENIA

FINAL REPORT

2023
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We would like to express our deep gratitude to the
Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sports of the Republic of Armenia,
International Biology Olympiad e.V.,
Team Telecom Armenia,
and Armenpress
for support.

IBO 2022 Office

Yerevan State University

1 Alex Manoogian, Yerevan, 0025

[email protected]

Published

January 2023
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It was an honor for us to host the 33rd IBO in Yerevan, one of the oldest cities in
the world.
The 21st century apparently is the century of Biology.
The development of technologies nowadays induces rapid development of Biology.

Fantastic efforts of the IBO community promote the career development of IBO
participants who are future scientists in the area of life science.
We were extremely happy to be part of these efforts of introducing young students
to the contemporary challenges of Biology.

Dr. Gayane Ghukasyan

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 CONTENTS

1. PREFACE 6

1.1 Facts and Figures 6

1.2 The History of NBO and IBO 2022 7

1.3 IBO 2022 Logo 7

2. IBO 2022 ORGANIZATION 8

2.1 The Organizing Committee 8

2.2 Funding and Budget 9

IBO 2022 PREPARATIONS 10

3. PARTICIPATION IN THE IBO 2022 16

3.1 Invitations and Participation Intents 16

3.2 The procedure of expressing the participation intent 17

3.3 Pre-registration 18

3.4 Payment 19

3.5 Team Data 19

3.6 Visa 20

4. IBO 2022 EXAMS 20

4.1 Practical Exams 22

4.2 The Assessment Program for Practical Exams 27

4.3 Theoretical Exams 27

4.4 Quality Assurance of Exams 28

5. IBO 2022 EVENTS AND VENUES 29

5.1 Program 29

5.2 Ceremonies 30

5.3 Excursions 39

6. INTERNATIONAL GROUP PROJECT 2022 62

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6.1 IGP 2022 Organization 63

6.2 International Group Project Posters 74

7. CALCULATION OF EXAM RESULTS 91

7.1 NORMALISING RAW STUDENT EXAM SCORES AND CALCULATION OF FINAL STUDENT
SCORE 91

7.2 SUMMARY STATISTICS OF STUDENT SCORES AT THE EXAMS 93

7.3 RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN STUDENT PERFORMANCE IN THE DIFFERENT EXAMS 95

7.4 FINAL SCORES AND MEDAL DECISION 97

8. LOGISTICS AND INFRASTRUCTURE 104

8.1 Accommodation 104

8.2 Transport 105

9. VOLUNTEERS 107

10. MEDIA AND PR 110

11. RISK MANAGEMENT 120

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1. PREFACE

1.1 Facts and Figures

The 33rd International Biology Olympiad (IBO 2022) was held on July 10-18, 2022 in the capital
of Armenia, Yerevan. The Olympiad was organized by Yerevan State University. The official
authority of the IBO 2022 was the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sport of the
Republic of Armenia.

Participants from 62 member countries and 3 observer countries took part in the Olympiad. In
total, 201 jury members, 5 observers, 237 students and 5 international advisors participated in
the event.

This final report demonstrates the organization and implementation of the 33rd International
Biology Olympiad held in Armenia.

The report includes “IBO 2022 EXAMS” zip folder as an appendix.

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1.2 The History of NBO and IBO 2022
The National Biology Olympiad of Armenia was established in 1991.
In 2008 Dr. Gayane Ghukasyan participated in the IBO in India as an observer. In 2009 Armenia
became a member of the IBO.
Since 2009, 38 Armenian students have participated in the IBO.
During the IBO 2018 Tehran Olympiad, the IBO Association made the decision confirming that
the Republic of Armenia would officially host the 33rd International Biology Olympiad on July
10-18, 2022.

1.3 IBO 2022 Logo

The IBO 2022 logo was created by Taron Simonyan in 2020.

The stork is considered as the symbol of respect for parents. According to an old legend, the
stork delivers food to its parents when they are no longer able to take care of themselves. Just
like the storks, it is the responsibility of each generation to continue on the valuable scientific
heritage of the ancestors. The color green symbolizes the eternity of life on Mother Earth.

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2. IBO 2022 ORGANIZATION
2.1 The Organizing Committee

The IBO 2022 Organizing Committee was formed in 2020.

The IBO 2022 Office was founded in Yerevan State University.

The head of the organizing committee was the program supervisor Dr. Gayane Ghukasyan.

The Advisory Board of the IBO 2022 consisted of the representatives of the Ministry of
Education, Science, Culture and Sport of the Republic of Armenia and Yerevan State University,
9 people in total. The head of the advisory board was RA Deputy Minister of Education, Science,
Culture and Sports, Dr. Zhanna Andreasyan.

The organizing committee consisted of the scientific committee, the auxiliary committee and
the secretariat.

The Scientific committee consisted of 14 people. The Scientific Committee developed 120
theoretical questions and 4 practical exams in total. 102 theoretical questions were presented to
the subgroup for the discussion.

The Auxiliary committee consisted of 15 people. Some auxiliary committee staff was provided
by Yerevan State University.

The Secretariat consisted of 6 people.

The Secretariat was formally established in 2020 in the IBO 2022 Office.

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2.2 Funding and Budget
In total 1,200,000 USD was spent on the IBO 2022.
The amount includes:
● 333,000 USD - participation fee.
● 6736 USD (6217.35 CHF) - Oly-exams software
● 860,264 USD - donated by the Armenian Government

The IBO 2022 participation fee for each team (4 students + 2 jury members) was 2500 USD. The
participation fee for each additional jury member and each observer was 2000 USD.

The technological partner of the Olympiad was the "Team Telecom Armenia" company, which
provided the necessary technical solutions to ensure the running of the exams.

The information supporter of the Olympiad was "Armenpress" news agency.

The IBO Office bought the Oly-exams software (ExamTools and Google Translate & Deepl
usage) for jury sessions of the IBO 2022. The total cost of the software was 6217.35 CHF (approx.
6736 USD).

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IBO 2022 PREPARATIONS

To host the IBO 2022, Participants’ bags and the following items were prepared by the auxiliary
committee and given to the participants during the Olympiad.

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White t-shirts were prepared for the participants.
Yellow t-shirts were prepared for the volunteers to be easily noted by the
participants.

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Lab coats with 4 different colors were prepared for the students of the 4 groups of
the practicals.

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3. PARTICIPATION IN THE IBO 2022

3.1 Invitations and Participation Intents

Firstly, the invitation letter was prepared by the IBO 2022 organizing committee and sent to the
IBO Office to upload on the newly created registration portal. Although the IBO 2022
organizing committee had a user profile of the portal and a permission to use a variety of tools
on the portal, the option to upload the invitation letter from our side was unavailable. The
invitation letter was sent to the IBO Office and after being uploaded it was sent out on the 8 th
February, 2022.

On February 8, the IBO 2022 organizing committee sent the invitation to 76 countries and
regions out of 78 IBO member countries and regions based on the data pool created on the
portal. 2 members (Kazakhstan and Liechtenstein) were left because of incomplete data. The
IBO 2022 organizing committee informed the IBO office about it and based on the available
information provided by the IBO Office, the IBO 2022 organizing committee sent the invitation
letter to Liechtenstein on February 11 and Kazakhstan on February 16.

The deadlines of all the stages were mentioned in the invitation letter.

The deadline to express the participation intent (informal information by all members whether
their team will likely participate) was 1 March, 2022.

On February 23 the IBO 2022 organizing committee used a portal tool to send reminders to
those coordinators who have not responded yet.

63 members expressed their participation intent through the portal by March 1 and the IBO
2022 organizing committee decided to extend the deadline to March 10. In the meantime, the
IBO 2022 organizing committee sent reminders through email as well. As a result, 6 more
members expressed their intention to participate by the extended deadline. In total, 69 IBO
members expressed their participation intent in the first stage.

Since only 1 invitation letter could be uploaded at the portal, the IBO 2022 organizing
committee asked the IBO Office to upload the invitation letter prepared for the observers, and
on March 10 the IBO 2022 organizing committee sent it to 11 countries that were interested to
become observers according to the list formerly provided by the IBO Office. The following
countries were interested to become observers: Afghanistan, Austria, Bosnia & Herzegovina,
Botswana, Cambodia, El Salvador, France, Ghana, Kosovo, Kuwait, Macao.

The deadline for the observers to express their participation intent was 31 March 2022.

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4 countries (Afghanistan, Botswana, El Salvador and France) expressed their intention to
participate as observers by March 31. In order for the observer countries to be able to submit
their intent, it was necessary to set the global deadline for participation intent for March 31.
This meant that members could also then submit participation intent until March 31 if they
tried. This was a single setting in the system.

Later 10 members (Australia, Belarus, Canada, China, Colombia, Egypt, Hong Kong, Mexico,
Turkmenistan, United States) and 2 observer countries (Botswana and El Salvador) withdrew to
participate.

The Macedonian team completed all the stages but could not arrive in Armenia because of no
convenient flights.

Between April-June, the IBO members Cyprus, Kyrgyzstan, Nigeria, Slovenia and Nepal and the
observer country Bolivia expressed their will by email to participate in the IBO 2022. Later
Nepal withdrew from participating. The IBO 2022 Organizing Committee set accelerated
deadlines for these teams to complete all the steps as soon as possible.

3.2 The procedure of expressing the

participation intent
After sending the invitation letter, the coordinators received an automatically generated email
from the email address of the IBO registration portal (not from the email address of the IBO
2022 Armenia). The coordinators received an email which invited them to express the
participation intent through the provided link of the IBO registration portal and presented the
invitation letter attached. The coordinators had to follow the link to express their participation
intent.

After expressing their participation intent the coordinators received an Invitation to the IBO
Registration Portal. This was when they received their password for the newly created
registration portal. The first problems the coordinators faced at this stage was that some
coordinators had not noticed the password in this email and tried to log into the portal with
their Member login credentials for the ibo-info.org website.

In addition, several coordinators contacted the IBO Office to replace their names because they
were no longer in charge to express the team’s participation intent. As everything was done by
the portal and the invitations had been sent based on the data pool, this kind of requests usually
took some time to figure out with the help of the IBO Office.
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3.3 Pre-registration
After receiving their credentials to log into the portal, the coordinators had to complete the pre-
registration by March 31. Pre-registration is the step when the coordinators definitely tell
whether their teams will attend. The coordinators also indicate the number of participants (jury
/ students) and single rooms requested. At this stage coordinators confirm that they know that
pre-registration constitutes a binding agreement with the host. Regardless of whether their team
attends the IBO or not, any fees incurred or set by the host must be paid.

After indicating the number of participants and single rooms (there was no single room fee, the
rooms were provided upon availability) an invoice with the all banking details was generated on
the coordinator’s portal account which they had to download.

At this stage the IBO 2022 organizing committee received lots of requests regarding the
invoices, such as to change the addressee of the invoice (the invoices were automatically
generated based on the coordinators’ information in the data pool), to send 2 or more separate
invoices to each funding organization of a team, etc. The IBO 2022 organizing committee tried
to fulfill these requests through the portal whereas some of them had to be done manually.

The IBO 2022 organizing committee also received several requests to extend the deadline for
pre-registration and therefore the deadline for the payment as well because of the uncertain
situation of the pandemic and financial support in some countries and regions.

46 countries and regions, including the observers, completed the pre-registration before March
31, the initially set deadline.

The IBO 2022 organizing committee extended the deadline for pre-registration to April 7. Only
1 more team completed the pre-registration by then and the IBO 2022 organizing committee
was asked by some teams to extend the deadline for some reasons, such as the uncertainty of
their financial support, the stabilization of the pandemic situation etc.

Then the IBO 2022 organizing committee extended the pre-registration deadline to April 22
sending a series of reminders. 13 more teams completed the pre-registration this time. After
April 22 the IBO 2022 organizing committee did not officially extend the pre-registration
deadline but continued to receive requests from some teams that were already ready to complete
the pre-registration.

2 more teams asked to open the pre-registration page by the end of April, 7 more teams in May
and 1 team in June and the IBO 2022 organizing committee fulfilled their request.

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2 new coordinators contacted the IBO 2022 organizing committee and informed that the old
coordinators expressed the participation intent and received the credentials to log into the portal
but were replaced later, that’s why their team had not met up with the deadlines.

5 countries (4 regular and 1 observer) withdrew from participating although they had completed
the pre-registration.

3.4 Payment
The deadline for the payment was initially set as April 30.

The IBO 2022 organizing committee sent reminders to the coordinators but only 22 teams paid
the participation fee by this deadline. The IBO 2022 organizing committee extended the
deadline to May 7. 18 more teams transferred the participation fee by this extended deadline.
The IBO 2022 organizing committee was requested by some teams to extend the payment
deadline for them for a number of reasons, such as until they would get financial support, until
they would select their competitors to be approved for the finances, until they receive their
visas etc. The IBO 2022 organizing committee agreed to extend the deadline for all the teams
that had requested. As a result 18 countries transferred the fee by the end of May, 5 countries in
June and 3 countries in July.

3.5 Team Data

The deadline for team data was initially set as June 1.

This is the stage when the coordinators fill in the personal details of each participant, such as the
personal data, contact data, address data, consent and declaration forms, passport data, photo and
details regarding educational, medical and dietary needs.

The IBO 2022 organizing committee constantly sent reminders about the team data to the
coordinators however this deadline was missed as well mainly because of late national selection.

At this stage the IBO 2022 organizing committee faced a few trouble-causing situations such as
the distribution of hotel rooms (because the IBO 2022 organizing committee didn’t have the full
list of the participants), the visa issuance of those countries that can receive visa only upon the
formal invitation (but the IBO 2022 organizing committee did not have the names of

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participants and their passport details for the invitation) and the preparations of printing the
yearbooks (because of the incomplete list of participants and photos).

Since most participating teams had transferred the participation fee as of June, thus confirming
their participation in the IBO 2022, the IBO 2022 organizing committee decided to wait for all
those teams to submit the participants list and photos to include their names and photos in
yearbooks. As a result, the IBO 2022 organizing committee received all this information in the
beginning of July which caused the late printing of the yearbooks.

3.6 Visa
Among 65 participating countries and regions only 19 needed visas to enter Armenia.

11 countries were eligible to apply for E-VISA which is processed in 3 days.

8 countries could obtain the visa at the Embassies (Consulates) of the Republic of Armenia BY
INVITATION ONLY. The individual invitation letters were to be submitted by the IBO 2022
organizing committee to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Armenia and when
approved the participants should visit the nearest Armenian Embassy/Consulate or send their
passports there to get the visa. We informed those countries that for this procedure 1 month was
required from our side after receiving the passport scans of the participants: up to 1 week to
prepare all the documents within the university and up to 3 weeks to be approved by the
Ministry. Unfortunately, some participants sent the required documents to the IBO 2022
organizing committee late, however, in the end, all the participants who applied for a visa,
received the visa to come to Armenia.

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4. IBO 2022 EXAMS
The IBO 2022 exams were conducted at The Sports and Concert Complex named after Karen
Demirtchian.

320 special tables were purchased so that the theoretical and practical stages could be held as
comfortably as possible for the participants.

320 brand new laptops were bought for the IBO 2022 exams.

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4.1 Practical Exams
The topics of the Practical Exam of the IBO 2022 were:

● Animal Systematics and Anatomy

● Biochemistry
● Bioinformatics
● Plant Anatomy and Physiology

During the practical exam, participants were given four experimental problems. Each practical
task lasted 1.5 hours. The participants were divided into four groups, and each group performed
the assigned tasks in order. There were 3 breaks. 2 of them lasted 20 minutes and 1 break lasted
1 hour.

The practical task of Bioinformatics was organized in a web application installed in laptops
bought for the IBO 2022 exams.

The demo application of Bioinformatics was published on ibo2022.org official website

beforehand.

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Purchased items for Biochemistry

Name Quantity
Spectrophotometer with opaque cuvette 81
Cuvettes 600
Pipette 5-50 µL 80
Pipette 20-200 µL 80
Pipette 100-1000 µL 80
Pipette tips – 100-1000 μl 200
Pipette tips – 5-200 μl 5000
Eppendorf tube holder 80
Empty Eppendorf tubes 700
Filter paper 1000
Gloves 320 pairs
Pen 80
Pencil 80
Eraser 80

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 Ruler 80
Marker pen 80
Clock ( stopwatch ) 80
Trash can 320
Calculator 80

Purchased items for Bioinformatics

Name Quantity
Computer with Application running 80
Envelope with materials 320
Calculator 80
Pen 180

Purchased items for Plant Anatomy and Physiology

Name Quantity
Bench lamp 80
Monocular microscope 80
Fresh spinach leaf (Spinacia) 320
Chilled solution labelled 1: “Isolation medium” 320
Solution labelled 2: “Reaction medium” 320
Glass beaker wrapped in foil (50 ml) 320
Mortar and pestle 320
Stopwatch 80
Sieve with cheesecloth 320
Fine glass capillary tubes 1600
Aluminum foil 320
Red filter 320
Green filter 320
Pasteur pipettes 640
Ice bath 80
Table for capillary tubes 80
Color scale 80
Glass rod 320
Scissors 320
Marker 80
Microscope slide 1300
Cover glass 1300

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Tweezers 320
Scalpel 320
Razor blade 320
Inoculation loop to use as dissecting needle 320
Small dropper bottle of distilled water (labelled H2O) 320
Small dropper bottle of HCl 25% solution (labelled HCl) 320
Small dropper bottle of phloroglucinol solution (labelled 3) 320
Small dropper bottle of glycerol (labelled 4) 320
Styrofoam rack with 4 pcs of Eppendorf tubes with plant stem samples 320
labelled II to V
3 plants samples labelled B, C, and D in zip-lock bags 80
Microscope slide of an unknown plant labelled "I" 80
7 photos labelled A, E, F, G, H, I and J 80
Photo: Fig. 1 Types of stele in vascular plants 320

Purchased items for Zoology

Name Quantity
Fish specimens for Part 1 only 240
Fish specimen of a supposed “new” species for Part 2 only 80
Photographs of fish for Part 2 only 240
Mask 320
Dissection tray 320
Magnifier with a double 3x and 10x lens 80
Tweezers 320
Scissors 320
Scalpel 320
Plastic gloves 320
A water bottle to keep fish moist 80
Paper tissue 320
Plastic bag for biological waste 320
Stationery (pen, pencil, pencil sharpener) 80
Red card 80

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4.2 The Assessment Program for Practical
Exams
A program was developed to check and assess the practical exams of Animal Systematics &
Anatomy, Biochemistry and Plant Anatomy & Physiology.

The program worked on the basis of the FlexiCapture licensed software package of the ABBYY
company.

The calculation part was done with Microsoft Excel.

FlexiCapture software enables recognition and conversion of handwritten and typed texts from
pictures for further processing. In the IBO 2022 it was used to measure the results of practical
work transferring the texts (mainly numbers) and X marks in the forms filled in by students into
the Excel electronic editor, to perform calculations and evaluate the works.

The completed ANSWER SHEETS were scanned, turned into pictures, which were processed
with the program, receiving numerical values and marks. The latter were also transferred to the
Excel spreadsheet to perform the necessary calculations.

4.3 Theoretical Exams

The theoretical exam contained 100 questions.

The theoretical exam consisted of two parts: part A and part B, each lasting three hours.

The Classmarker web-based quiz maker was purchased for conducting the theoretical exam. The
results were automatically generated after finishing the exam.

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4.4 Quality Assurance of Exams
The quality of the IBO exams was discussed with the international advisors and sub-jury.

The subgroup consisted of 10 members: 5 international advisors and 5 sub-jury members.

The international advisors were Margaret Linford, Mary Oliver, Anindya Sinha and Poonpipope
Kasemsap.

The sub-jury members were Jan Černý, José Matos, Saman Hosseinkhani, Takao Ishikawa,

Tatsuhiko Noguchi (joined online), Katarina Jurikova (joined online).

The subgroup conducted its sessions at Ani Plaza Hotel on July 5-10, 2022.

The group of inspectors followed the implementation of the exams.

The head of the inspectors was Birthe Zimmermann.

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5. IBO 2022 EVENTS AND VENUES

5.1 Program

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5.2 Ceremonies
The opening ceremony was held at Armenian National Academic Theatre of Opera and Ballet
named after Alexander Spendiaryan with the participation of the Chief of Staff of the RA Prime
Minister Dr. Arayik Harutyunyan, RA Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sports Dr.
Vahram Dumanyan, Rector of Yerevan State University Dr. Hovhannes Hovhannisyan. The IBO
chairperson Dr. Ryoichi Matsuda made opening remarks.

During the opening ceremony, Mkhitar Heratsi, the 12th century Armenian physician and
philosopher, via modern technologies greeted the young biologists of the 21st century and
wished them success.

The speeches of the speakers were followed by a concert program organized by YSU Charles
Aznavour Culture Center. The pop-symphonic orchestra of the Public Radio and Television of
Armenia (artistic director: People's Artist of the Republic of Armenia Yervand Yerznkyan) and
Sargis Bazhbeuk-Melikyan performed cultural performances.

Musical performances were followed by dance performances. "Mer Dar" dance was performed
by the "Barekamutyun" dance ensemble (artistic director: RA People's Artist Norayr
Mehrabyan), and the solo dance "Komitas" by Ani Haroyan.

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The closing and award ceremony was held at Armenian National Academic Theatre of Opera
and Ballet with the participation of Chief of Staff of the RA Prime Minister Dr. Arayik
Harutyunyan, RA Deputy Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sports Dr. Zhanna
Andreasyan, Rector of Yerevan State University Dr. Hovhannes Hovhannisyan.

The event concluded with cultural performances. Musical performances were performed by the
"YSU band" and "Little singers" choir (artistic director: RA honored educator Tigran Hekekyan).

The medals and group project awards were given to the participants. The trophy was officially
transferred to the next host country UAE.

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5.3 Excursions
During the pre-examination day, the students got acquainted with Yerevan, visited the Victory
Park where the monumental statue of Mother Armenia (a female personification of Armenia) is
located overlooking the capital city of Yerevan.

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The participants went to UNESCO protected Garni Temple and Geghard Monastery.

Garni is known for the nearby classical temple. The Temple of Garni is a hellenistic period
building in Armenia.

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A souvenir (presented below) was distributed to the participants as a memento after the visit to
Garni.

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Geghard is a medieval monastery being partially carved out of the adjacent mountain,
surrounded by cliffs.

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Museum “Erebuni” is a museum of the history of the founding of Yerevan.

In the Erebuni fortress there is a cuneiform record inscribed on the stone slab which says: “In
the greatness of God Khaldi, Argishti, the son of King Menua, has built this impregnable fortress
and called it Erebuni…"

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Matenadaran is a Research Institute of Ancient Manuscripts that has a permanent exhibition.
Visiting Matenadaran gives the opportunity to get acquainted with the richest manuscript
heritage of the Armenian people.

In Matenadaran a master class was held for the participants under the title "Application of
Biological Methods in the Preservation of Armenian Manuscripts".

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Cafesjian Center for the Arts is an art museum in Yerevan, Armenia. It is around the Yerevan
Cascade which is a complex of massive stairs with fountains. The museum is dedicated to
bringing the best of contemporary art to Armenia and presenting the best of Armenian culture
to the world.

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"Vernisage" is an open-air fair, where the participants got acquainted with the fusion of
Armenian national traditions and the dominant taste in the modern world.

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"Yerevan park” is a theme park with two dozen high-quality attractions, live shows, restaurant,
merchandise shop and lovely characters who add that finishing touch to the fairy tale. The
students visited the park after the exams, while the jury dined out at “Arqayadzor” restaurant
complex.

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After the exams, an outdoor entertainment event was held at the courtyard of The Sports and
Concert Complex (the exam venue) where the students and jury members were reunited. The
participants were taught and enjoyed Armenian traditional dances.

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A souvenir (presented below) was distributed to the participants as a memento of The Sports and
Concert Complex.

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6. INTERNATIONAL GROUP PROJECT 2022
62 students from 31 teams participated in the International Group Project 2022 (IGP 2022).
They selected a topic out of 5 suggested fields, and submitted their work as 17 different posters.
The work was facilitated through former IBO participants from different countries
(international facilitators). 15 facilitators from 8 countries worked with the students from June
12, 2022 to July 1, 2022. The work was conducted online.

Students had only 18 days to work together. This time shortage was due to late selection from
individual teams of IBO 2022 participants, and some time needed for IGP 2022 registration and
team allocation.

6.1 IGP 2022 Organization

On June 11, the IBO 2022 organizing committee organized a Zoom meeting with the facilitators
and shared with them the information on IGP, how they are supposed to work, what are Do’s
and Don’ts, and what are the expected results. On June 12, the IBO 2022 organizing committee
organized a similar info-meeting with the registered participants and informed them about
group allocation based on the selection. On the same day, they connected with their facilitator
and started to work on the project online.

The following fields were suggested to students for selection: Biomedicine, Molecular and Cell
Biology, Bioinformatics and Artificial Intelligence, Across Species, Bionics and Biomimicry.
They could select more than one topic in order to facilitate the organizational work of team
allocation.

Molecular Cell Biology is the most selected topic (7 teams), along with Biomedicine (6 teams).

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 Topic How many teams?

Biomedicine: 6

Molecular Cell Biology 7

Bioinformatics and AI 3

Bionics and Biomimicry 1

Across species 1

The jury members who evaluated the work were: Mary Oliver (UK), Maggy Linford (UK),
Anindya (Rana) Sinha (India), Poonpipope Kasemsap (Thailand), José Matos (Portugal), Jan
Černý (Czech Republic), Saman Hosseinkhani (Iran), Takao Ishikawa (Poland). Jury members
evaluated the students according to 5 criteria, and gave a consensus score for each category. Six
teams received an award: three teams-3rd prize, two teams-2nd prize, and one team-1st prize. The
results are summarized in the table below.

Question and answer (on spot)

Research question / Creativity

Discussion and conclusions

Presentation (on spot)
Methodology

Poster Prize
Sum
Group FacilitatorName Country Medal Topic Poster Title
Michael,
Purnama Indonesia Gold
Liam Audrey, Evolution of
Shushan Alleda Philippines Merit Bioin- the Fenna-
1 Toneyan Aravindh, for- Matthews- 3 3 4 3 3 16 No
(Armenia) Kuppusamy matics Olson (FMO)
Velmurugan Singapore Bronze and AI Complex
Daviti
Giorgadze Georgia Nothing

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 Aleksandra Exposure of
Kowalczyk Poland Silver Mesenchymal
Stem Cells to
Barbara,
Biome- cerebrospinal
2 Buchalska Sebastian
dicine fuid in
3 3 3 3 4 16 No
(Poland) Krikke Netherlands Silver
Alzheimer’s
disease
Jorūnė
treatment
Budriūnaitė Lithuania Bronze
Nanobodies as
Molecu-
Lawnaldi, Tristan, van The Treatment
lar and
3 Sugiarto der Beek Netherlands Bronze Cell Tools For 5 4 3 5 5 22 3rd
(Indonesia) Basel Parkinson's
Biology
Alkanjo Syria Silver Disease
Albert Application of
Rumle biomimicry-
Stevan Bionics
Bernsen Denmark Bronze based materials
Bodganov and
4 (North
Szymon
Biomi-
to improve 5 5 5 3 4 22 3rd
Bander Poland Silver microclimate
Macedonia) micry
Karina in Yerevan city
Karimova Russia Gold center

Paul, Ugwu Nigeria Nothing

Jose Javier CAR T-cells

Joan Nadia
Quintana treatment for
Laksmana 3 3 3 4 3 16 No
Rodríguez Spain Nothing Biome- Goodpasture’s
5 (Indonesia)
Zuzanna dicine syndrome
Żyra Poland Silver

Urh Šarlah Slovenia Nothing

THREE WAY
Celine Xie Denmark Nothing
SYMBIOSIS:
Anush
Across Exploring a
6 Margaryan George, Lee Singapore Silver
Species unique way Of
5 5 4 5 5 24 1st
(Armenia) ROHIT
Extreme Heat
PANDA ,
Tolerance
PANDA INDIA Silver
Kriti Shahu Nepal N/A Novel method
Nethmini, Molecu-
Raven Philippin of identifying
Rathnayake lar and
7 Nirasha
Foronda es Bronze
Cell
tumor status 3 3 3 3 4 16 No
Abdullah by using
(Sri Lanka) Biology
Jaddaa Syria Silver hyperpolarized

65
 Russian substrates
Mustafin Federation
Nazim (IBO team) Gold
Lawand
Bayram Syria Merit
Giorgi
Nebulishvili Georgia Nothing Preventing
Wijepala Breast
Molecu-
Cancer
Jeremy Ng Abeysinghe lar and
8 (Philippines) Thennakoon Cell
Metastasis 4 4 4 3 2 17 No
Mudiyanselage by Silencing
Biology
Praveen the SNAP25
Charuka Protein
Thennakoon Sri Lanka Nothing
Ema Suligoj Slovenia Bronze
Jagienka
Mesenchymal
Mądrzak Poland Gold
stem cell-
United
Jovana derived
Moza Arab
Stojcheska Biome- exosomes
9 (North
Aldhanhani Emirates Nothing
dicine therapeutic
3 4 4 4 4 19 No
Bobur
Macedonia) role in diabetic
Poudel Nepal N/A
cardiomyo-
pathy
Urban Bauk Slovenia Bronze

Adnan
RIHAWI Syria Nothing

The Molecu-
Farrel, Controlled
Republic lar and
10 Marsetyo
Mila of North Cell
Expression of 2 2 2 3 3 12 No
(Indonesia) Telomerase
Dimitrovska Macedonia N/A Biology
Yerassyl Kazakhst
Temirbekov an Silver
Karthik Pravin
Ramachandran Srilanka Nothing
Owen Ong Singapore Gold Therapy for
Harshan, Lactose
Molecu-
Lilit Arulmoli Sri Lanka Bronze Intolerance By
lar and
11 Grigoryan Alikhan
Cell
CRISPR/dCas9 4 4 2 4 3 17 No
(Armenia) Zhumagaleyev Kazakhstan Silver -mediated
Biology
Epigenome
Yakov
Editing
Korobitsyn Russia Gold

66
 Design of a
Min Seo, Low-Cost
Koo Singapore Gold Point-of-Care
Robert
Joo Chan, South Biome- Test Kit for
12 Yeghikyan
dicine COVID-19
4 5 4 5 4 22 3rd
(Armenia) Kim Korea Silver
Cytokine
Semyon Storm
Shmakov Russia Gold Susceptibility
A NOVEL
PROPOSAL
FOR
INDUCING
Povilas
CONTROL-
Šaučiuvienas Lithuania Silver Bio-
Arman LABLE
Dumitrescu infor-
013 Simonyan
matics
MAGNETO- 4 4 5 5 5 23 2nd
Ștefan-Ionel Romania Bronze
(Armenia) TACTIC
Markuss and AI
MOVEMENT
Gustavs
IN THE
Kenins Latvia Bronze
CILIATE T.
RAYAN, BANGLA THERMO-
RAHMAN DESH Bronze HILA

Joo Hyun, South

Hahm Korea Silver Tumor
FAYYAD, BANGLA Molecu Supression
Lilit
14 Grigoryan AHMMED DESH Bronze lar and through
4 3 4 4 3 18 No
Cell regulation of
(Armenia) Nadav, Qvit Israel Silver
Biology the BCL-3
Nguyên, Đỗ Pathway
(Nguyen,
Do) Vietnam Bronze
Yechan, South
Jeong Korea Silver
Seraphim, Liechtens
Robert Joliat tein Merit
Biome- No poster
15 Yeghikyan TAHSEEN
dicine submitted
No
(Armenia) SHAAN, BANGLA
LEON DESH Bronze
Mindaugas
Smetaninas Lithuania Bronze
Seoyeon, South Molecu- Applying
Tzang, Chih
Jeon Korea Bronze lar and Autophagy as a
16 Chen
Mane Cell treatment for
5 4 4 5 5 23 2nd
(Taiwan)
Kurghinyan Armenia Nothing Biology Huntington's

67
 KHUNDKE disease
R ISHRAQ, BANGLA
AHAMMAD DESH Bronze
Donato Elías Argentin
Pellegrini a Silver
GENETIC
BIOMARKERS
Nauris OF
Priksans Latvia Silver PARKINSON’S
Arman Bioinfo
DISEASE
17 Simonyan Ján Plachý Slovakia Silver rmatics
IDENTIFIED
4 4 3 3 2 16 No
(Armenia) and AI
WITH
Syuzi MACHINE
Sahakyan Armenia Merit LEARNING
Ottó Tatai Hungary Bronze METHODS
Arman
Hayrapetyan Armenia Bronze
Siluni Synthetic
Josue Wickramath Fibrinogen as a
Francisco, ilake Sri Lanka Nothing Biome- treatment for 3
18 Laszeski dicine
3 4 3 3 16 No
Aikaterini, Afibrino-
(Argentina)
Karpouzi Greece Merit genemia
Daniel Czech
Čičovský republic Silver

Jury members evaluated posters with the following five criteria, each 5 points maximum, and in
total 25 points.

Research Methodology Discussion and Presentation (on Question and

question / conclusions spot) answer (on
Creativity spot)

Jury members evaluated the first three criteria by reading pdf posters, and the last two on spot,
at the poster presentation site. They gave their points not individually but as a consensus
reached by all of them. The advantage of IGP is that it includes both theoretical and practical
work, and it also includes teamwork skills, as well as public presentation, which are not tested
during theory and practical tasks. So, it should be evaluated separately. It can have 10% value in
total score, and Theory and Practical parts can have 45%+45%. Each team member will get the
same score, as the other team members, as it will be impossible to judge the team members. The
students will share the same score as the team received. The students who participated in the
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IGP 2022 have also participated in Theoretical and Practical exams of IBO2022, and some
received medals. Their performance is summarized in the table above.

Initially 4 members per each group was allocated, however, some students did not participate as
much as the others and dropped out from the group. The IBO 2022 organizing committee has
asked the groups and facilitators to confirm the group member name only in the case they agree
that all the students had sufficient contribution to be in the group. Hence, some groups had less
than 4 members in the end.

An exhibition of posters of the international group project took place at YSU. A summary of the
results of the group project was done.

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An award and a certificate were given during the closing ceremony to the IGP winners.

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A souvenir (presented below) was distributed to the participants as a memento of Yerevan State
University.

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6.2 International Group Project Posters

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7. CALCULATION OF EXAM RESULTS

7.1 NORMALISING RAW STUDENT EXAM

SCORES AND CALCULATION OF FINAL
STUDENT SCORE
The way the IBO 2022 organizing committee calculated the final scores of each student is
described below. It follows the procedure applied at IBO 2015 and IBO 2013. In Figure X1, the
IBO 2022 organizing committee shows the normalization of the raw scores for the four practical
exams.

In Figure 6.4, ‘Rank’ gives each student final rank among all 237 students. The normalized scores
for each Practical exam are obtained according to the formula:

(𝑆𝑖,𝑒 − 𝑆𝑒 )
𝑁𝑆𝑖,𝑒 =
𝑆𝐷𝑒

where 𝑁𝑆𝑖 is the normalized score student i earned exam e, 𝑆𝑖,𝑒 is the raw score student i earned
exam e, 𝑆𝑒 is the mean of scores in exam e, and 𝑆𝐷𝑒 is the standard deviation of scores in exam e.

Theoretical exam scores are normalized in the same way after summing the students’ scores for
the two exams (it is labeled as Theroy_total_normalized in the Figure X1).

The normalized scores of the practical exams are then summed (labeled as practical_total in
Figure X1). Followingly the same normalization procedure is applied to the practical_total score
to obtain the final normalized practical score (labeled as practical_total_normalized Figure X1).
This second normalization is needed because the IBO 2022 organizing committee attempts to
make the practical exams different to test a variety of student skills (which is not the case of the
two theoretical exams). The second normalization was introduced in Bern 2013.

The final normalized score is calculated by summing Theroy_total_normalized and

practical_total_normalized. Lastly, the final score is calculated by scaling the final normalized
score according to the following formula:

𝐹𝑆 = 𝐹𝑁𝑆 ∗ 10 + 50

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where FS is the final score, FNS is the final normalized score.

The last transformation is used to make the score more student-friendly.

Figure X1. Score

calculations

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7.2 SUMMARY STATISTICS OF STUDENT
SCORES AT THE EXAMS
The scores of the students at the six exams are summarized with box plots in Figure X2. Non-
parametric Wilcoxon test was used to test for difference between the theory scores and among
the practical exam scores. There was no significant difference detected between the theory
scores which indicates that the two exams were uniform. On the other hand, all practical exams
were significantly different from each other, which is expected since the IBO 2022 is testing a
different set of skills in each exam. This is in agreement with results of statistical analysis of
previous IBOs and is the reason the IBO 2022 organizing committee normalizes the scores.

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Figure X2. Box plots of the results of theoretical and practical exams. ns=non-singificant, *** =
P<0.001, **** = P<0.0001.

Histograms illustrating score distributions of the six exams are given in Figure X3.

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Figure X3. Histograms of student scores in the exams.

7.3 RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN STUDENT

PERFORMANCE IN THE DIFFERENT EXAMS
The two theoretical exams are regarded as replicates. Therefore, the IBO 2022 organizing
committee expects individual students to perform similarly in both. This was tested by a simple
correlation analysis (Figure X4). R score and P value are measured. R is a correlation coefficient
that measures the strength of the relationship between two variables, as well as the direction on
a scatter plot.

The individual student scores from the two theoretical exams were highly correlated with
R=0.81 and P<2.2e-16. On the other hand, the four practical exams should certainly not be
replicated since they test different practical skills of the students. Therefore, the IBO 2022
organizing committee expected weaker correlations. The possible six correlations between pairs
of practical exams are shown in Figure X4 (R value on the up-left corner of each plot).

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Figure X4. Correlation between raw scores in the four practical exams, and between the two
theoretical exams.

The individual student scores from the four practical exams are correlated with R varying from
0.33 to 0.62, which is still high values but the correlation is significantly less strong than in
between the theoretical exams. If a student is strong in one practical discipline, they generally
perform well in the other practical exams as well, but there is still much differentiation in the
skillsets. The IBO 2022 organizing committee has obtained the strongest correlation between
Plant Physiology and Bioinformatics, while the weakest correlation is between Zoology and
Biochemistry. For comparison, corresponding values for the IBO 2013 practical exams ranged
from 0.18 to 0.55, and for IBO 2015 from 0.17 to 0.39.

7.4 FINAL SCORES AND MEDAL DECISION

The normalized scores Theroy_total_normalized and practical_total_normalized for the exams
were strongly correlated (R = 0.77****, Figure X5). The distribution of the final scores of the
students is given in Figure X6.

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Figure X5. Correlation between the normalized scores for the two kinds of exams

Figure X6. Frequency distribution of the final scores for the students. A normal distribution
density function is fitted on the histogram.

Based on the final scores out 237 participants, 26 students have been awarded gold medals
(11%), 46 students have been awarded Silver medals (19.4%), 71 students have been awarded
Bronze medals (30%), and 25 students have been awarded Merit Certificates (10.5%) (with a
10%-20%-30%-10%-30% distribution being the ideal required by IBO).
.
The ranking table is presented below.

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IBO 2022 MEDALS

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IBO 2022 CERTIFICATES

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8. LOGISTICS AND INFRASTRUCTURE

8.1 Accommodation
During the IBO week competitors and team guides were accommodated at Ani Grand Hotel, in
Yerevan.

Jury members, observers and international advisors were accommodated at Ani Plaza Hotel in
Yerevan. Jury sessions took place at the same hotel. The subgroup also conducted its sessions at
Ani Plaza Hotel on July 5-10, 2022.

The jury room was located at the same hotel where the jury members stayed. The jury room was
set up with two large screens showing the discussion progress. The seating arrangement of jury
delegations was organized according to native languages as accepted in the previous IBOs. Each
seat had a power supply for the jury members’ laptops. There was a WiFi connection in the jury
room available only for the jury members. In the jury room, IT volunteers were present to assist
the jury members if needed.

During the IBO week participants experienced a variety of Armenian food and drinks. The food
and beverage plan was developed based on the requirements mentioned on the registration
form.

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8.2 Transport
18 buses were rented to organize the transportation of the participants during the IBO 2022. A
free of charge pick-up service from Zvartnots International Airport was offered for all
participants even before the official arrival date. IBO 2022 volunteers met the participants at the
airport and accompanied them to the hotels. The volunteers were holding a special sign with the
IBO 2022 logo to be easily noted. All participating teams were offered to be transferred from the
hotels to "Zvartnots" International Airport after the end of the Olympiad.

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9. VOLUNTEERS
The IBO 2022 organizing committee started recruiting volunteers since April 2021. Cooperating
with the faculties of Yerevan State University as well as through outsourcing, the IBO 2022
organizing committee recruited 147 volunteers. 77 volunteers were located at the students’
hotel, among which 61 volunteers were the IBO guides accompanying the students, 23
volunteers were located at the exam venue, 30 volunteers in buses and 17 volunteers at the IT
sector of the jury’s hotel.

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10. MEDIA AND PR
The IBO 2022 was the biggest event held in Armenia in 2022.

TV features, articles, press releases were made about the IBO 2022 before, during and after the
Olympiad.

During the IBO week, the official website of Yerevan State University / ysu.am and the official
YSU Facebook page published updates regarding the IBO 2022 activities.

The official website of the IBO 2022 / ibo2022.org was created in 2020. The website was used to
provide information about Armenia, the IBO 2022 and the participation (accommodation,
venues, visa requirements etc.). The information regarding the International group project, visa
requirements and Covid requirements, as well as the practical information was sent to the
coordinators through email as well, besides being published on the website.

Social media networks were used to keep in touch with the participants and make
announcements.

We created Facebook and Twitter pages in 2020 and an Instagram page in 2022.

Informational posters about the Olympiad were placed In Yerevan, on Yerevan State University
building, on the Sport and Concert Complex building, on the National Academic Theater of
Opera and Ballet building and at the hotels of the Olympiad.

Daily newspapers covering the course of the Olympiad were printed and distributed to the
participants.

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IBO 2022 YEARBOOKS

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11. RISK MANAGEMENT
During the implementation of the Olympiad the IBO 2022 organizing committee faced the
following risks:

1. Financial risk

The Armenian Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sports secured 800.000 USD in the
beginning of the program.

2. Time scarcity risk

The participation fee is transferred to the host country only months before the Olympiad as
accepted in the IBOs. To acquire all the necessary equipment, accessories, chemicals etc. the
IBO 2022 organizing committee ordered everything required beforehand, relying on the money
secured by the Ministry.

3. Pandemic risk

Considering the pandemic situation in the world, the IBO 2022 organizing committee
understood the risk of an outbreak of the pandemic during the Olympiad. To minimize the risk
of virus spread during the Olympiad, the organizing committee applied to the Armenian
Ministry of Health asking for help to prevent the outbreak.

A related-information was sent to the team leader through email, was published on the website
and flyers with this information were distributed among the participants during the Olympiad.

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In spite of the prevention measures:

● 5 students out of 237 were infected during the Olympiad (2%).

● However, all the students managed to participate in the practical exam
● Only 1 student took the theoretical test at the hospital

4. Safety risk

To ensure the safety of all students, the organizing committee cooperated with the police, and
during the exams, a group of policemen and ambulance were on duty.

● In general, there were about 20 ambulance calls. Besides the Covid cases, there were also
cases of diarrhea caused by drinking too much water and eating lots of apricots.
● And finally, a Hungarian student had to undergo an urgent surgery of a hernia and
returned back to her country in a good state of health.

Students With Special Health Requirements

● 1 color blinded participant was assisted by a volunteer

● 1 autistic participant was provided by psychological help
● 1 participant with broken arm was provided by a pillow for comfort

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 AFTER THE OLYMPIAD

● Post-Olympiad survey was done among volunteers to identify all organizational and
health related problems.
● Certificates and yearbooks were sent to the team leaders.
● A final report was prepared.
● An after movie was created and uploaded on the IBO 2022 website
(https://www.ibo2022.org/en/mediabox/video-gallery).

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IBO 2022 ARMENIA
FINAL REPORT

2023 Yerevan, Armenia

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