Student Sri Lanka Educational Network

Biology Olympiad Award Ceremony – Imagination for Science discoveries

Hiran — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 06:38:12 +0000

Some may think that scientists are people with the knowledge on science. But my definition on a scientist is a mentally developed person with the capabilities such as imagination, visualization, and characteristics like curiosity and hunger for knowledge, said Pramith Ruwanpathirana of Royal College, Colombo, at the Award Ceremony of Sri Lankan Biology Olympiad held on 30 January 2012. Pramith scored highest marks at Sri Lankan Biology Olympiad and he became the island best student in A/L 2011 Biological Science stream. Based on the Biology Olympiad examination held last year 19 students were awarded Gold medals, while 25 Silver and 28 Bronze medals at this award ceremony held at National Museum Auditorium. Chief Guest for the occasion was Prof Gamini Samaranayake (Chairman, University Grants Commission) and Prof Sirimalee Ferenando (Chairman National Science Foundation), Prof Hiran Amarasekera (Sri Lankan Biology Olympiad Coordinator), Prof M J S Wijerathne (University of Keylaniya) and Prof H G Nandadasa (University of Sri Jayewardenepura) also attended the occasion.

Biology Olympiad 2011 best Gold Medalists - Pramith Ruwanpathirana -Royal College, D. P. Vithanage – Ananda College & P. L. S. Peiris - Ananda College with Prof Hiran Amarasekera and Prof Sirimalee Ferenando (Chairman National Science Foundation)

Pramith further said “Thomas Alva Edison who invented the electrical bulb first imagined and visualized the bulb, as similar product had never existed before.” Hence a scientist is someone who can build a hypothesis and experiment on it rather than memorizing all the facts that have already being discovered. Biology Olympiad is such an examination encouraging the students to think over and apply the knowledge they have learnt.

I thank the Institute of Biology for organizing this event and encouraging us to go to the greater heights of our education. I feel very proud of myself this very moment to address this kind of an audience, of people who have archived the greatest heights of their education in accordance to the age.

Lets join hands my friends, and deliver the message to the outside world. There are many who have the capability on innovation, but still follow the traditional ways of memorizing facts. I invite all my dear Teachers to encourage the students to be true scientists.

Summing up my speech i’d like to congratulate all my friends for their achievements, and wish all of you the very best of luck, and let’s hope that few from this audience will be fortunate enough to introduce new concepts to this world, explain to the unexplained and help science put one step forward.

Be a Unique person says Dr Abdul Kalam at Colombo School Science Day

Hiran — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 11:13:13 +0000

“Every youth wants to be unique, that is, YOU! But the world all around you, is doing its best, to make you just everybody else”, said Dr Abdul Kalam, Former President of India and renowned aerospace engineer and professor of Aerospace engineering, at World Science day school program organized by National Science Foundation of Sri Lanka at BMICH Colombo on 24 January 2012. At home, students are asked by their parents to be like neighbors’ children for scoring good marks, and in school, teachers say “why not you become like the first five rankers in the class”. Wherever you go, they are saying you have to be somebody else or everybody else.

However you can also become a great scientist like Thomas Alva Edison (inventor of electric bulb and electrical lighting system), Wright Brothers (aero plane), Alexander Graham Bell (telephone) or Sir CV Raman (Nobel Prize winner for his discovery on scattering of light).

Your challenge is to fight until you arrive at your destined place, that is, a unique you!

Criteria to become a Unique Person (Scientist)

There are four steps that you can follow to become a unique person;
1. having an aim in life before 20 years of age,
2. acquiring knowledge continuously, by good books and from great personalities
3. hard work towards the aim and
4. perseverance to defeat the problem and succeed. That means you should never give up.

This speech and may other talks by this great Indian Scientist can be found in his web site.

Edex Expo 2012 Education & Careers exhibition at BMICH at Kandy

Hiran — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 03:15:45 +0000

EDEX Expo 2012, Education & Careers exhibition will be held in BMICH, Colombo on 20th, 21st, & 22nd January (from 10am to 7pm) & Kandy City Center on 7th & 28th January (9am to 6m). Over 300 Local & Foreign Universities, Education Institutes and other Organizations will participate this event. Participants will be able to meet representatives from different educational institutes in Sri Lanka and abroad (such as UK, USA, India) and select courses and degrees.

You can find out educational Choices, Options and Opportunities in the post-secondary, graduate and postgraduate fields, technical and vocational training leading to gainful employment.

This exhibition also contains a Green Zone to promote sustainable living. You can visit stalls of Department of Forestry and Environment Science, University of Sri Jayewardenepura and Young Biologists’ Association here.

What computer programming language should I learn first?

Hiran — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 18:03:55 +0000

Starting the career in Programming. What language? This question was asked by 14 year old boy in warez-bb.org forum. He asked “I want to program in future, but still don’t know what’s the most effective computer language around (and the one that I will get payed for the most). I gotta’ say , And the thing I think could be most effective and payable is web-programming? if so agree, what language should I start with?”

I think following would be the best answer for this question.

I believe you can categorise programming languages into the following:
code>

* Very low-level:
-- Assembler - programming the bare metal. This is difficult and takes quite some time to master
* Low-level:
-- C - Very powerful, with huge possibilities for shooting yourself in the foot. Most operating systems and speed-dependent programs are written in this, as well as device drivers. It's an excellect language to learn early since it gives an appreciation of memory limitations, and imposes a discipline of double-checking everything.
* Medium-level
-- C++ fits in here. Be careful - C++ is most certainly not "a better C", but is an object-oriented language with behaviors quite different from C. For example the compiled code has a vtable which puts sufficient overhead on the code to preclude its use in many places where C is used.
* Pretty high-level
-- Java and C# are pretty much identical in form - each has its own libraries and server concepts (J2EE and .NET) but ultimately if you can program one you can switch to the other with the minimum of fuss.
* Scripting languages
-- PHP, Perl, Python, etc. fit in here. These languages tend to be less rigid in structure, yet very powerful. They are also often type-agnostic and very dynamic. For these reasons, they are bad places to start to learn programming, teaching sloppy practices.

My suggestion for a new programmer would be to start with Java or C#. These provide good protections to prevent you breaking things, yet have strong funtional capabilities and broad support for just about everything in the libraries. Both have good supporting tools, although Microsoft's Visual Studio is for C# is probably better than Eclipse or NetBeans for Java. On the other hand, Java runs everywhere while C# is limited to Windows.

I would strongly recommend that you learn C too. It's actually a deceptively simple language but it allows you to do anything, including stupid things, so it teaches you how not to do stuff pretty quickly.

But some other person advices him:

If he wanted to learn web programming. For me, i would advice:-

- HTML
- CSS
- Javascript

This is the basics for web developer and not C#.net, php, asp etc..

You can comment put your comments.
PHP Web Programming by Muthu Ramadoss
Learn PHP Web Programming with this comprehensive tutorial.

PHP Web Programming

View more presentations from Muthu Ramadoss

School calendar for 2012 – first, second and third term dates

Hiran — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 12:41:13 +0000

School calender for 2012 – commencement and finishing dates of first, second and third terms are released by Department of Education.

Dates

A/L 2011 best results from Colombo Royal; Jaffna, Tissamaharama and Kegalle

Achintha Bandara — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 10:00:36 +0000

Pramith Ruwanpathirana of Royal College obtained the best results in the Bio Science stream, according to the Official list released by the Examinations Department. Kamalakannan Kamalawasan of Uduppiddy American Missionary College in Jaffna received the best results Maths stream. Ishara Dilhani of Tissamaharama Debarawewa Madya Maha Vidayalaya topped the Commerce stream while the first place in the Arts stream went to Sachinthani Kaushalya Senanayake of St. Joseph’s Balika Maha Vidyalaya in Kegalle.

Second and third places:
Bio stream – Ananda Nadaraja Sanjayan from St. John’s College Jaffna and Mohammed Fathima of Fathima Muslim Ladies College of Colombo were placed second and third respectively.

Maths stream – Nushen Seneviratne of Royal College and Amila Silva of Dharmaraja Vidyalaya in Kandy received second and third place respectively.

Commerce stream – Second place went to Supun Liyanage of Richmond College, Galle and third place went to Lakshana Amarasinghe of Vishaka Vidyalaya Colombo.

Arts stream – Chamindri Umesha of Southland College Galle was placed with the second best results in the Arts stream and Miyuru Pramodya Weerakone received third place.

A/L 2011 examination results released

Hiran — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 01:20:41 +0000

The results of GCE Advanced Level examination held on August, 2011 was released last night and you can check the results at www.doenets.lk internet web site of Department of Examinations.

You can also check using mobile-phone with Dialog connection by
EXAMS Index Number & Send 7777

Mobitel users can check results by ExamsIndex Number and send to 8844. Rs 2+tax per request is charged.

A/L Tuition Classes
Science degree courses at Universities
Download A/L past papers
Student Jobs
Engineering and physical science courses at National Universities
National Universities

Five tips for selecting a good English course in Sri Lanka

manoj — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 02:11:19 +0000

English is the international language. There are many English courses in Sri Lanka. Here are the five tips for selecting a great English course in Sri Lanka.

1).Qualifications of the teacher

The student should find out the qualifications of the teacher. Here are the main qualifications of a great teacher,
• The teacher should be able to control the language.
There are some teachers who cannot control the language proper. Because they think that teaching English is only teaching the grammar. Then they teach only the grammar not English.
• Teacher should be able to teach vary simply and the student should be able to understand the things which the teacher teaches.
• The teacher should be qualified with a degree or with a diploma of an accepted university or an institute.
2).Teaching methodology and the content of the course.
The teacher should have a master plan to achieve the competency levels of the students and he should be able to give the plan to the student.

3). Four practices.

To achieve the competency levels of speaking and understanding of a language, the student has to practice 4 things.
• LISTENING
• SPEAKING
• READING
• WRITING
Because some teachers think that teaching English is only teaching grammar. With grammar the class should be completed with above practices. If the teacher provides the master plan of practicing them, it is a good English class.

4).Develop the personality of the student

The students should have a great personality to control English language in a public place because of the nerves. The teacher should have a master plan to enrich the self confidence of the student and it should be able to get to the student. If there are personality development activities and other psychological practices of the course unit it is an interesting and very important English class. Without the self confidence English is not able to speak. The classes which develop the personality and the self confidence are the classes that make good speakers.

5).Protect the cultural identification of the students.

Each and every student has a culture and a cultural identification. Learning and be able to speak English is not changing the culture. Each and every student is able to protect the culture although after learning English. The English institutions which help to protect the cultural identification of the student are good institutions.
They are the five factors of a good English course.

Here are most popular institutions for English language.

BRITISH COUNCIL
If you study English in British Council you can have UK qualification for your studies. The certificate you receive is accepted around the world by universities and employers.
The examinations in British council
1).IELTS ENGLISH EXAM
2).CAMBRIDGE ESOL EXAMS
3).SCHOOL EXAMES
4).PROFESSIONAL AND ACADEMIC EXAMS
5).EXAMES FOR TEACHERS
Opening hours at Colombo,
Tuesday to Saturday
Opening hours at Kandy,
Tuesday to Saturday

Address
Country Examinations Manager,
British Council,
49, Alfred House Gardens,
Colombo 03.
E-mail:info.lk@britishcouncil.org

AQUINAS
• Certificate in English for Business
This course is suitable for the people who need to enhance English skills that they need to work. Pass G.C.E (O/L) examination is an admission Requirement. The duration is 3 months. The classes will be held on Sunday 01.00 p.m – 10.00 a.m
Fee
Registration RS 250/=
Course Fee Rs 5, 000/= + VAT & Other Taxes(15%)
• English as a subject as G.C.E (A/L)
This is for the students who wish to sit for the A/L examination. Passed O/L is a requirement. Time duration for this is 2 years. The classes will be held on Saturday 01.00 p.m to 05.00 p.m.
Fee
Registration RS 250/=
Course Fee Rs 3, 000/= + VAT & Other Taxes(15%) per term – 10 weeks
• Advance certificate in English for business
This course is for the students who need to improve their knowledge in English for Business Administration. Passed G.C.E (O/L) examination is a requirement. The duration is six months. The classes will be held on Sunday 8. 00 a.m – 10.00 a.m and Saturday 01.00 p.m – 05.00 p.m
Fee
Registration RS 250/=
Course Fee Rs 7, 500/= + VAT & Other Taxes(15%)
Contact
Tel – +94112694014/15, +94114616311, +94114618689
Fax – +94112678463
Email: asaman_7@hotmail.com
asaman_7@hotmail.com
Fax – +9411 2678463

How to conduct a School Science Day

Dream_Media — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 16:42:52 +0000

School science day is one of the major school opportunities for students to enhance their knowledge in the field of maths and science. The main focus of the school science day is to lighten up the students knowledge with modern trends in science field that would persuade them to organize their talents in a way to innovate new things. It also provides a great opportunity to reduce the gap between teachers and students. These activities facilitate students to work as a group, which will improve personality, team spirit and sharing of knowledge.
School science students select a theme and select a speaker with consulting with master-in-charge and other teachers of the science section.
School science day programs can also be organized according to the instructions given by National Science Foundation (NSF) of Sri Lanka. NSF is a government organization which provide funding for Sri Lankan Researchers. National Science Foundation has established School Science Society Program to popularize science among school children to cultivate an appreciation of the value of science, scientific method, technology and the integral role that science play in modern society.

The main functions of School Science Society Program of the NSF are:
 Facilitating to organize a school science day
 Identify problems related to the area and implement necessary project to overcome such situations.
 Submit a report of the activities conducted throughout the year to NSF and renew registration.

If your school is a member of this program, NSF will sponsor the event by providing multimedia facilities and providing a Lecturer (Scientist/ Academic) for School Science Days, and you can also get following benefits.

 You can obtain services of local scientists.
 Funds will be provided to conduct science day programs, projects etc.
 Vidurava science magazine will be provided free of charge.
 Members will be given the opportunity to participate in seminars.
 Members will be given the opportunity to participate in competitions organized by NSF.

For more information visit this site-

NFS also conducts a National Event called World Science Day Schools Program annually. The main program is conducted at BMICH and it gives tremendous encouragement for science societies of schools to conduct better school science days in order to achieve awards for their school surpassing other strong competitors. As always we say strong competition leads to greater outputs. Here are some noticeable events organized in World Science day schools competition.

 National Olympiad Competitions
 Science Research Project Competition
 National winners of the Sri Lanka Science and Engineering Fair
 NSF award for teachers award for promoting science amongst school children
 National award for popularization of science
 Star Rating awards for school science societies based on their performance
 World Science Day schools Competitions

School science day programs are mainly conducted by funds provided by school. But these days, there is a trend of organizing walks, selling bookmarks and badges in order to fund the science day programs. According to the information I obtained ,most of the schools organize a science day program once a year and these are sometimes divided according to the age wise which means under 13 and over 13. Some schools have records of Science day programs conducted by difference sections in the school(Eg: grade 12 science day, grade 11 science day).Though these are conducted time to time the main purpose of these programs is to make up a good citizen who can endeavor the upcoming challenges in future life.

Some websites which you can obtain information regarding science days and science societies-

Ananda College-http://www.facebook.com/ACSU.2010.2011
Royal College- http://www.facebook.com/pages/Beyond-the-Imagination-2011-Ranabima-Royal-College-Science-Day/289684127722280
Vishaka vidyalaya- http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=299464297636&v=wall&viewas=0

If you are going to conduct a school science day, there are some steps which you should follow-
 Get the idea approved by the members of science society.
 Select a proper theme that is useful to the society and school children
 Select a good Resource Person (Scientist/ Academic/ Professional) as the key note speaker. Popular lecturers normally inivted to School Science Days include Prof Carlo Fonseka, Dr Jayantha Wattewidana, Prof Sarath Kotagama, Prof Hiran Amarasekera, Prof Sudantha Liyanage, Prof Hemanthi Ranasinghe, Dr Chandana Jayarathna, Dr S D Rosa, Mr Jagath Guanwardena. You can get help from NSF, SLAAS (Sri Lanka Association for Advancement of Science, Institute of Biology, Institute of Chemistry, Institute of Physics or from relevant departments of Universities in selecting a suitable lecturer.
 Get permission from society owned teacher.

 Get permission from principal.
 Create a list of schools that is going to participate for the competitions.
 Create a financial plan with treasurer regarding budget deficit.(Be careful when creating the financial plan, remember to include the Hall cost, decoration cost , etc.)
 Make a practical plan to collect funds.
 When you have sufficient funds and proper permissions forward those to NFS and Educational ministry. NFS will support you with sponsors and Educational Ministry will allow you to officially invite other schools for your competitions.
 At the end provide a expense report for necessary authorities.(note-This will allow you to achieve awards in World Science Day Schools Program)

Please remember to include Science Dramas, competitions, songs also with consultation of Music/ Drama teachers of the school. Do not rely too much on technology, and try to show true talents of your school children to the world. Also do not spend too much money on unnessearry decorations. Try to organize the event with low budget, and if you can save money, donate some equipment (such as multi-media projector) to the school.

Commerce day, Literature day and Arts day are some other projects that conduct parallel to science days. In Sri Lanka commerce days and arts days are organized by the efforts of students who learn in commerce field and arts field respectively.

If you are expecting to carry out this kind of task successfully, just be sure you are a hard-worker, pressure-handler, stress-handler and honest. These qualities will lead you to achieve your goals no matter what comes against you.

තවත් විස්තර සිංහලෙන් කියවන්න More in Sinhala
Related:
School Science Projects
Research Methodology for Science Projects

GCE O/L 2011 Science Model Papers in Sinhala and English medium by K Ariyasinghe

Hiran — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 02:49:31 +0000

You can now download free model papers for GCE O/L (ordinary Level) by popular lecturers.

Science paper was prepared by Deshamanya Vidya Jothi Vidyabimanee Keerthidhara Gaurawa Mr K Ariyasinghe Sc Tr (1st Class) B.Sc. Ph.D. FRI (UK).

Mr Ariyasinghe is the most experienced O/L teacher in Sri Lanka. Mr Ariyasinghe has been teaching O/L for more than 40 years, and has written many O/L science text books. He has been a popular writer for many Sri Lankan news papers, including Vidusara and Rivira. This year (2011) he has conduced four seminars, in Sinhala and English Medium.

K. Ariyasinghe is an experienced science teacher, writer and author. He is a fellow of the Royal Institution of Great Britain (FRI). He is also a full member of Association of British Science Writers (ABSW-UK), Australian Society of Authors (ASA) and
Society of Writers News & Writing magazine – Scotland. He is the president of Science & Technology Promotion Foundation of
Sri Lanka. He has written about 100 books and nearly 3500 articles to papers and
magazines.

These are the Model Papers presented at those seminars.

Science Sinhala Medium Papers

Science I by Mr K Ariyasinghe PDF document
Science IIA by Mr K Ariyasinghe PDF document
Science IIB by Mr K Ariyasinghe PDF document

Science Sinhala Medium Answers
Science I Answers by Mr K Ariyasinghe PDF document
Science IIA Answers by Mr K Ariyasinghe PDF document
Science IIB Answers by Mr K Ariyasinghe PDF document

English Medium Papers
Science I English Medium by Mr K Ariyasinghe PDF
Science IIA English Medium by Mr K Ariyasinghe PDF
Science IIB English Medium by Mr K Ariyasinghe

Download more papers from study.studentlanka.com
A/L 2014 Tuition classes for students after O/L
O/L 2011 Time Table
Find O Level (O/L) Tuition Teachers, Classes, Educational Institutes in Sri Lanka
Download Sri Lankan GCE Ordinary Level Examination Papers
Download School Text Books free