Organizing an in-person nation-wide Biology olympiad during the Covid-19 pandemic.

ABSTRACT

The Covid-19 pandemic has inspired the implementation of a number of online educational activities designed to promote appropriate measures, such as social distancing, in order to avoid spread of the disease. In these circumstances, ensuring that extracurricular activities in science education adapt to the changing situation is of crucial importance. Recognizing the important role high school science olympiads play in science education, we organized an in-person socially distanced 2-day examination for the final round of the Armenian National Biology Olympiad by using Classmarker, a web-based in-browser tool for administering exams. We believe that our experience with organizing this event will prove useful to other educators faced with uncertainty regarding the return to pre-pandemic modes of instruction.