Brain Bee
A song listened to, a walk in the park, the colors of a rainbow – sensations, memory, pain and joy – are all housed in a barely three pound tissue – the brain. The North South Foundation Brain Bee is aimed at increasing the awareness of the brain – the final frontier in our Inner space!
There are two levels:
- Intermediate Brain Bee (IBB): Grades 6, 7 and 8
- Senior Brain Bee (SBB): Grades 9, 10 and 11
The IBB basically gets your feet wet with some interesting Brain basics. The SBB, in addition to learning about this exciting organ, also prepares you for the US National Brain Bee. Competitions are conducted in different regions and the winner gets to compete in the national competition. The US national winner will then compete in the International Brain Bee.
For the North South Foundation regional contests:
- IBB: The material is posted on the North South Foundation Website
- SBB: The Brain Facts book (2012) posted on the North South Foundation Website
Questions will be of multiple choice/fill in the blanks type. Answers for up to 70% of the questions are in the material prescribed for the respective levels.
- http://www.dana.org/About/DABI/
- https://www.sfn.org/public-outreach/brainfacts-dot-org
- https://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/neurok.html
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/omim
Now, go fire up your synapses!
Good Luck!
In addition to all the general contest rules stated by North South Foundation, the following rules are applicable for Brain Bee Competition.
-
There are 2 levels of competition in Science Bee:
- IBB (Intermediate Brain Bee): Grades 6, 7 and 8
- SBB (Senior Brain Bee): Grades 9, 10 and 11
- The General Info for the Brain Bee, level-wise, can be found on this website. It should be understood that any syllabus can only act as a guideline, and in the same given category of syllabus, the level of difficulty can vary dramatically from a beginner to an advanced level. Brain bees (IBB & SBB) are held as a written examination only. Contestants should bring their own pencils and sharpeners. Parents are NOT allowed in the examination room.
- Contestants will be given a set of 25 questions to answer. The maximum time allocated to answer the questions is 30 minutes. Each contestant is given the question paper along with a blank answer sheet with numbered rows to write the final answer. Each question has adequate space to arrive at the answer with a pencil. No other sheets will be given. Contestants are allowed to use the backside of the question paper to work out problems. Contestants are required to transfer the answers from the question paper to the answer sheet (which is attached to the question paper and contains numbered rows to write the final answer).
- Calculators are NOT allowed at any level.
- All sheets (including question and answer sheets) shall be returned at the end of the contest.
- Unclear and illegible writing might be open for misinterpretation. So, contestants are expected to write clearly and legibly. The decision of the judges is final.
- There will NOT be any partial credits for steps. There will be NO negative points for any incorrect answer. The contestant will be awarded one point for the correct answer and zero for an incorrect answer. Answers that are not transferred to the answer sheet will not get any credit.
-
Based on the total scores, the judges will determine the winners. The 1st place winner shall be ahead by at least
one point to be declared as the champion. In announcing the ranks 1st, 2nd, and 3rd, the judges will follow these rules:
- Announce Ranks 1, 2 and 3, if and only if there are at least 10 contestants
- Announce Ranks 1 and 2 ONLY, if there are 8 or 9 contestants
- Announce Rank 1 ONLY, if there are 5-7 contestants
- DO NOT announce any ranks if there are less than 5 contestants
- The tiebreaker rules apply ONLY if there are at least 5 or more contestants participating in a given center and at the discretion of the judges/regional coordinator.
-
After tabulation of scores, if there is a tie, the scheme outlined below is followed in the order given, to break the tie:
- Score among all questions
- Score among questions 21-25
- Score among questions 16-20
- Score among questions 11-15
- Score among questions 1-10
- If the above steps fail to break the tie in question, the foundation may use additional measures to resolve them or award joint ranks.
- Both IBB & SBB contestants will be invited to the National Finals. Invitation to National Finals is based on the scores of all the contestants nationally and is not based on a direct correlation of ranks achieved by a contestant in a regional contest. Thus, the score of each contestant relative to all such scores around the country will determine whether the contestant will be invited to the National Finals. The regional tiebreakers are only helpful in determining the winners for a particular center, but have no bearing on the Finals invitation.
The following links contain the preparatory material for the North South Foundation Brain Bee contests.