BEO Post 3
Dear BEO Participants,
Thank you very much for your questions – they always show us a different perspective of the programme.
Please, see below the answers to the questions received this week. Hopefully these will be useful for all of you, as they cover general ideas and issues you may already be thinking about.
Warm regards,
Cassandra & the OIEG Team
08/12/2023
General
Question: One of my students is turning 17 during the programme. Can they participate?
Answer: Your student can still travel and take part in all aspects of the BEO programme and participate in any competitive elements up until the day they turn 17. Ensure they participate in a minimum of two events to avoid penalties.
Question: I don’t remember the age requirements being so strict before. What has changed and why?
Answer: The BEO programme has always been targeted at the same age bracket: students who during the competition are between 12 and 16 years old. Every year, specific birth dates have been given to avoid any issues on arrival.
The age requirement is such to ensure that all teams are at the same cognitive level.
Question: We are bringing two teams from the same school. Do we submit all information at once?
Answer: No, you will have to submit your information for each team individually. You will submit the student information for your first team, and then for the second one. Likewise, both teams will have to submit their own waiver forms.
Question: When do we submit our waiver forms?
Answer: This will be discussed and explained in detail during our third webinar, on January 25th.
Question: What exactly is the International Night, and what does it entail for my students?
Answer: This is a great opportunity to teach others about your culture, your country and city’s traditions and idiosyncrasies. Teams will be assigned a stall so they can showcase these through pictures, sweets, traditional crafts, memorabilia… In the past, students have brought all of these, some have shown videos, and they also give short speeches to those who walk by.
The whole idea is for students to also “visit” other countries – students rotate between being at their stall and visiting others’. This is a chance for them to get to know other cultures and bond with other students, as well as to positively boast about their own culture.
They can also present in front of everyone – we’ve had dancing, singing, and even a retelling of their city’s history. The easiest to set up and most visually enticing is always a dance, but we’ve had all sorts of things. You could even run a dance lesson if you get some of the rest of the students on board!
Presentation events
Question: For the Country Spotlight event, are we supposed to create a profile about the country or the country’s technological advances?
Answer: Revisit the first Forum post, where this question was already answered.
Question: During the Investigation event, students need to use AI tools. If we research using an AI tool, can we copy and paste the information to another AI tool?
Answer: This is exactly what your students should be doing. Using text tools like Chat GPT to create their content and script, but transposing this text onto a different tool that can create your slides.