The New Zealand Young Physicists’ Tournament is a researched based Physics team competition open to all New Zealand students studying NCEA level 3 Physics, or another advanced Physics examination courses, in New Zealand.
The Tournament is organised by the New Zealand Young Physicists’ Trust, registered charity CC62496. Through the tournament, the Trust aims to:
- Encourage critical thinking, problem solving and genuine experimentation for Physics students
- Provide a fun physics competition between schools (“a bit like debating, but there’s a point to it”)
- Select and train a team to represent New Zealand at the International Young Physicists’ tournament. This will be in Lund, Sweden in July 2025.
The 2025 New Zealand National Team Tournament will be held on Sat 22nd March 2025 in Auckland.
Teachers wishing to enter teams for the 2025 New Zealand Young Physicist Tournament can register their interest here. This adds you to our mailing list but does not commit you to entering the tournament.
We recommend this approximate timeline for your students’ work. Please adapted it to fit the rhythm of your own school’s year.
See the seven problem for the 2025 National Tournament here and the selection process for the NZ Representative team to go to Lund.
Congratulations to our 2024 NZ Reps!
Congratulations to the NZ Representative team who came 13th of 38 national teams, winning bronze medals in Budapest, Hungary this July.
- Matthew McKee (captain) – Auckland Grammar School
- Alison Power – Onslow College
- Belle Yin – St Cuthbert’s College
- Charlie Li – ACG Parnell
- Emilio Grey – New Plymouth Boys High School
We wish them all great success with their tertiary studies.
The 2025 National Team Tournament
Teams of three students prepare solutions seven research questions, a subset of the 17 problems set for that year’s International tournament. Students will study these problems researching them through simple experiments and linking them to theory. Each student studies one or two problem so that between them, a team has solutions to at least three, and ideally five or more, of the seven problems.
At the tournament, the teams present their research and then answer questions about their work in a series of ‘Physics Matches”. The matches are watched and scored by a jury panel of physics teachers and other volunteers working with tertiary level physics. The cumulative scores from three matches decides the top teams in the country.
The 2025 national, inter-school team tournament will be held on a Saturday 22nd of March in Auckland. Competition will start at 9.00. am, conclude at about 4.00 pm and be followed by a prize giving celebration. There is no online competition this year; teams must attend in person.
There are additional requirements for students wanting to be considered for the NZ representative team here.
Further instructions and updates about the tournament will be published on this site and emailed to those teachers and students who have registered their interests. This will include venues, payment due dates, etc..
Fees for 2025: In 2024, fees were $135 per team of three students including their teacher/juror. This pays for the lunch and other refreshments provided for participants, room hire and administration. Fees for 2-25 are yet to be set but will be kept as low as possible. Fees may be waived in cases of hardship if approved by the NZYPT national organising committee.
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