Competition Details & Syllabus

IMSO is an individual competition.

The participants of the Olympiad are grade 5 or 6, and not older than 13 years of age. Participants are chosen through a national selection process.

Each country is entitled to send 12 students, 6 students for each subject. 

Former host countries and IMSO board members will be able to send a maximum of 12 participants for Math and 12 participants for Science. 

The problems consist of two parts for each subject.

Math: Short Answers, Essay and Exploration Problems.

Science: Theoretical (I&II) and Experimental problems.

The problems are constructed based on the mathematics and science elementary curricula, reference books and other relevant sources which develop intellectual reasoning and creativity. 

The official language for the contest is ENGLISH and participants are allowed to use a hard-copy English - Native language dictionary during the contest.

Mathematics:

1. Arithmetic Whole numbers, Rational numbers and their representations (fraction, decimals, and percentages), pattern recognition, Factors and Multiples, Greatest Common Divisor, Least Common Multiples, Ordering of numbers, and Ratio and Proportion

2. Geometry Properties of polygons (Triangle, quadrilateral, parallelogram, trapezium) and circles

• Angle and its measure

• Area and Perimeter of different polygons

• Symmetry, reflection and rotation, similarity andproportion Properties solid figures

• Nets of a cube, and parallelepiped

• Symmetry, reflection and rotation, similarity, and proportion

3. Data and Measurement

• Data representation and interpretation

• Mean, median, and mode of a set of data

4. Counting Techniques

5. Recreational Mathematics

Science:

1. Science skills and methodology: general health (nutrition, common disease, and prevention)

2. General environmental issues: deforestation, managing natural resource pollution, water and carbon cycle, etc

3. Basic ecology: habitat, interaction, food chain and food web, population, ecosystem, life cycle, etc

4. Physiology: photosynthesis and respiration.

5. Current technological developments: GMOs, biotech, biofuel, satellites, etc.

6. Human anatomy and functions: skeleton and movement, olfactory system, auditory system, mouth, eyes, circulatory, digestive system, skin, respiratory system) and its disease and problems.

7.  Classifying organisms: based on their food, anatomy, systematics, reproduction system and its habitat.

8. Mechanics: motion of objects, static fluid and gas

9. Solar system: members of the solar system, rotation of earth and moon, earth and moon eclipses

10. Planet Earth: structure, surface, the process of earth formation, water cycle, renewable resources, climate, seasons, gravitation, wind

11. Electricity and magnetism: applications, models

12. Matter: properties, phase transformation (solid, liquid, gas) physical, chemical, and biological transformation)

13. Thermal properties: temperature, thermometer, energy, conduction, convection, radiation

14.  Light: property, vision, color

15.  Forces: change in shape, magnetic, gravitation, frictional forces

16.  Energy and energy changes: kinetic, potential, heat, sound, renewable, energy conversion