Singapore Astronomy Olympiad 2025

The 12th edition of the Singapore Astronomy Olympiad (SAO), organised by Astronomy.SG aims to promote scientific literacy and STEM, and to select students to represent Singapore at the 18th International Olympiad on Astronomy and Astrophysics (IOAA) to be held in Mumbai, India. The SAO 2025 consisted of 2 rounds, one round of online quiz and one round of face-to-face examination.
 

SST is represented by 5 students from the Astronomy Club. Teh Tian Cheng [S4-02] (28th), Gavriel Chia [S4-05] (41st) won a silver medal each and Lim Kai Jun [S4-04] (18th) won a gold medal. Although they didn’t qualify for the IOAA, their standings are the best achievement over the last 10 years for SST. "Ad astra per aspera" – "To the stars through difficulties."

Catch a Star 2024

Catch a Star

The idea of the Catch a Star program is to encourage students to work together, to learn about astronomy and discover things for themselves by researching information on an astronomical object.

The goal of the European Astronomy Contest Catch a Star is to stimulate the creativity and independent work of students from European secondary schools, to strengthen and expand their astronomical knowledge and skills, and to help the spread of information technologies in the educational process.

Catch a Star is a contest that has been held as a result of the collaboration between the European Association for Astronomy Education (EAAE) and European Southern Observatory (ESO).

On 31 March 2025, 5 groups of SST students submitted their entries into the competition. They are found here: 

TEAM	NAMES	Class	Title and video links
1	MAH HON KAI	S2-06	Asteroids
	NANASOMBAT KANTATHAM	S2-06	LINK
	SIN YONG QI	S2-06
2	GOH RUI JIE THADDEUS	S2-05	Corpernican Revolution
	WONG WEI KAI, LUCAS	S2-06	LINK
	LI SHIYING	S2-08
	SIN YONG QI	S2-06
3	CHIEW LEUNG YIN	S2-01	Supernovas
	LEE XUAN QIANG	S2-03	LINK
4	LAM CAI TZENG, DEXTER	S2-05	Eclipse
	ENZO ANG	S2-06	LINK
	DESSEN ARWIN TAN AHN JOON	S2-05
5	TAY YEOW QIAN DAVIS	S4-03	Black Holes
	GOH MIN WEN, TED	S4-03	LINK
	LUKE GOH REN YONG	S4-03

Team 2, consisting of Rui Jie Thaddeus Goh, Wei Kai Lucas Wong, Shiying Li, and Yong Qi Sin, won the best non-European video prize for their video project on the Copernican revolution.

The prize that they will be awarded is a virtual tour to a professional observatory and a live discussion with an astronomer. More updates will be found here when we completed the virtual tour. 

Catch a Star is a contest that has been held as a result of the collaboration between the European Association for Astronomy Education (EAAE) and European Southern Observatory (ESO). EAAE is thankful to ESO and to Astronomía magazine for their support.

International Space Challenge 2024

The ISC is an annual trans-disciplinary technology design competition that challenges youths aged 13 to 25 to design and develop realistic space- related projects.

For the year 2024, the theme was on Living in Space: Humanity's next monumental challenge

Living in Space presents a multitude of challenges, from the unforgiving environment to the logistical complexities of sustaining life beyond our planet. But these challenges also hold immense potential, not only for pushing the boundaries of human exploration, but also for improving life back on Earth through advancements in healthcare and food security.

For the Starter's Category, the title is:  

Describe how you would perform a meaningful life science experiment in the space environment.

SST Astronomy club is represented by 6 teams of students, with the following reports and posters:

• Team Astra: WARAD SANATH MANJUNATH (S2-01), NATANIA SREE DINESH (S2-03), RAMYA THANIGAI ARASU (S2-08)
• Team Astro: KWEK EN XIN, RISSA (S3-03), SEERAT DHALIWAL (S2-01), R ADVAITH (S2-08) 
• Team Ester: CHIA WAN HOK, JADON (S2-06), JAYDEN JAMES (S2-08), ALLEN JOEL GAN WEI EN (S2-09), EAGAN BENEDICT PUI ZHENG HENG (S3-01)
• Team Galaxy: PRAISHAN JOSHI (S2-07), KYRAN TAN KAI LOON (S2-01), CHUA LI MING ETHAN (S2-05), TOH HONG RUI, TREVOR (S2-01)
• Team Hester: CHIEW LEUNG YIN (S1-01), ZANDER CHOY KIT YU (S1-08), LI SHIYING (S1-08) 
• Team Nova: AURELIUS LI (S1-01), CHUAH PIN JING (S1-01), YEO ZHI XIN , PIPER (S1-01), TAN SHUO YU (S1-01) 

Team Astra achieved a Merit Award for the Starter Category. 

Their reports is found here: LINK 

The video is found here:  https://youtu.be/MA-aAavXml0

Their poster is found below:

Their poster

WARAD SANATH MANJUNATH (S2-01), NATANIA SREE DINESH (S2-03), RAMYA THANIGAI ARASU (S2-08)

The team receiving their award from the organisers

Their certificate

Hainan Space Science Field Trip (7-10 Nov 2024)

From 7 to 10 Nov 2024, a group of 19 students participated in the Field Trip organised by Astronomy Club.  

The objectives of the trip are for students to:

● Learn about the Research and Outreach in Space Science through the visits to Aerospace Museum and the Wenchang Rocket Launch pad. 

●  Participate in various educational experiences through the visits to various schools and sites.

● Experience star gazing in environments that would otherwise not be possible in urban Singapore.

●  Experience a STEM learning experience for SST students in an authentic Learning environment.

 The general programme is: 

7 Nov (Thu)	Wenchang High School
	Making Water Rocket
8 Nov (Fri)	Space Super Data Centre
	Aero Space Museum
	Rocket Launching Pad
	Coconut Kingdom
	Star gazing at Gaolong Bay
9 Nov (Sat)	Confucius Temple
	Haikou Volcano Park
	Hainan museum
	Haikou Old Street
10 Nov (Sun)	Return to Singapore

The students who participated in the programme were: 

SHAUN CHUA ENQI	S3-01
JOAB LEE MING ZE	S3-02
TEH TIAN CHENG	S3-02
ANG JIA HAO, TYLER	S3-02
CHONG ZHE HAO	S3-03
LIM KAI JUN	S3-04
FAYONA BINTE SIRAJUDEEN	S3-05
LEE HAU YEE	S3-05
LI JIAYOU	S3-05
WONG JIA HAO (WANG JIAHAO)	S3-05
TOH HOU ENN HOWARD	S3-06
VIJAY GANESH LATHISH	S3-06
TIFFANY TAN XUAN YING	S3-07
KOEN TAN KAI ERN	S3-07
NG YAN XUE, KAISER	S3-07
LEE TING XUAN	S3-08
ANDERS CHARLES LEE EKBERG	S3-09
SEAN YUEN HOU WENG	S3-09
FU CAI GUI	S3-09

The teachers who accompanied the students on the trip were Mr Tan Hoe Teck, Mr Allan Low and Ms Wong Ho Yan. 

 

Wenchang High School

 

SST@Wenchang High School

Space Super Data Centre

Rocket Launching Pad 

Haikou Volcano Park

 Hainan museum

FCC Radio License Course and Exams (July-Aug-Nov 2024)

After the success on 17 Nov 2023, where 6 participants successfully obtained their FCC Radio License, another course was conducted on the following dates:

(a) 5 July, 12 July, 19 July, 26 July from 3 pm to 9 pm. 

(b) 29 Aug 2024 Examinations 

(c) 19 Nov 2024 Examinations 

With the support from Singapore Amateur Radio Transmission Society Singapore (SARTS), we managed to conduct the programmes and examinations on the dates above. The SARTS members who conducted the lessons included: 

(a) HUGH MASON, 9V1SA

(b) CHEW LIP HENG, 9V1YP 

(c) CHIA LIH WEI, 9V1LW 

(c) DARRYL EE, 9V1DE 

(d) THAM FU HANG, 9V1FH

(e) CHU HAOYUAN, 9V1HY 

(f) CHEUK YAN AU,  9V1AD

(g) GOPALAN VEDARTHAM, 9V1AZ 

(h) SAI WAI PHYO, 9V1WP

(i) RAGUL BALAJI, 9V1RB (Alumni of SST) 

In July 2024, a total of 26 students attended the course over 4 Fridays.

On 29 Aug 2024, 17 students took the test. 14 passed with different classes of the license.

On 19 Nov 2024, 10 students took the test. 7 passed with different classes of the license.  

It takes a village to develop students. Thank you to the SARTS volunteers. 

Thailand Astronomy Conference (28 June -1 July 2024)

For the second year, SST Astronomy Club joined the 10th Thailand Astronomy Conference from 28 June to 1 July 2024. However, this time around, we made the trip all the way to Chiangmai for the competition. 

During the competition, we had the chance to interact with the students from Thailand schools. By pitting our skills against the best in Thailand schools, we are able to match up to the high research standards amongst the Thai students. 

SST Astro club is represented by Harish Ram and Poon Zhiler. They came back from the competition with a Gold Medal for their project on "Observation of the 21-cm hydrogen spectral line of the Milky Way galaxy using a homemade horn antenna".