New Astronomy Competition Courses

Meritus Academy has just opened two new astronomy competition courses to help students prepare for the two International Astronomical Olympiad competitions in August and October 2024 and for the Canadian Astronomy and Astrophysics Olympiad (CAAO) in March 2024.

There are two International Astronomy Olympiad competitions, one is the International Olympiad on Astronomy and Astrophysics (IOAA), which is held in August every year. The other one is the International Astronomy Olympiad (IAO), which is held around October every year. Both competitions are part of the International Secondary School Science Olympiad series.

Last year, the IOAA committee created another Olympiad competition called the IOAA Juniors, only for students who are 16-year-old and younger. For more information, please visit www.caao.ca.

Since 2017, Canada has held a national selection competition, CAAO, from which the top 5 to 10 students are selected to a national team to participate in the IOAA.

One major benefit of participating in the astronomy competitions is that there are many more spots for students at the Olympiad level. Furthermore, the number of competitors is relatively fewer compare to other STEM competitions. So, students have more opportunities in this subject.

In 2022, six students from Meritus Academy (Olympiads School) were selected for the 10-team member and represented Canada in the IOAA. They were: Daniel Yang, Connor Wong, Hongyi Huang, Simon Wu, James Pu and Nicholas Wu. Among them, Daniel Yang won the gold medal. Connor Wong won the silver medal, Hongyi Huang the bronze medal and Simon Wu received an honorable mention.

This year, four students from Meritus Academy (Olympiads School) were selected to participate in the IOAA. They were: Hongyi Huang, Tian Pu, Debbie Wang and Eleanor Liu. Among them, Hongyi Huang won the silver medal and Tian Pu won the bronze medal.

In addition to participating in the IOAA, Canada also selected a team to participate in the IAO.

Meritus Academy has opened two astronomy competition classes from October 29. One is a shorter course for the Canadian Astronomy and Astrophysics Competition (CAAO) on March 2, and the other is a junior competition class to help younger students prepare for the IOAA Junior and IAO Junior.

Course	Prerequisite	Time	Duration
Astronomy Contest Junior	Grade 10 Math and Grade 9 Science	Wednesday, 7:00 – 9:00 PM	From November 1 to May 22, 2024. 26 classes in total.
Astronomy Contest Senior	AP Calculus and Grade 12 Physics	Sunday, 1:20 – 3:50 PM	From October 29 to March 3, 2024. 16 classes in total.