The International Young Physicists’ Tournament, IYPT, is often referred to as the “World Cup of Physics.” It brings together national representative teams of senior year school physics students.
Working together a team of five, students mimic, as close as possible, real-world scientific research and the process of presenting and defending the results obtained. They have up tp a year to research the 17 open-ended physics problems selected annually by the International Organising Committee.
They are not looking for the “right answer”. No such thing exists and they certainly can’t find it in the back of the book! Instead students must design and perform experiments, record and analyse data outcomes and then draw conclusions that relate back to theory.
The beauty of the Tournament is that teams can take quite different routes to tackle the same problem. The competition itself is not a pen-and-paper competition but an enactment of a scientific discussion. As long as they stay within the broadly defined statement of the problem, all routes are legitimate. Teams are judges on the presentation and debate of their research, it’s fit to theory and the conclusions they draw.
The Trust aims to send a New Zealand representative team to every IYPT where out Government advises travel is safe.
What IYPT shows students
- Team Work: Students must work together to investigate the 17 problems in any depth. The ability to cooperate in an organized way as well as the ability to organize your own work is one of the most important soft-skills required by today’s economy.
- Research: IYPT problems are formulated in a very open way; offering many ways to apply methods of scientific research. It promotes skills in exploring ideas without a map or set of directions.
- Physics Knowledge: Of course working with the IYPT problems teaches a lot of physics knowledge. Due to the project-oriented and practical work this knowledge will be retained for longer than typical class work and exist alongside an appreciation of how to apply it.
- Debating and Presentation skills: All participants face the challenge of presenting their work in only 12 minutes in a way that is informative, convincing and engaging. They also need to respond to a presentation quickly and insightfully.
- International Engagement: The final will take most students to a new country and all of them will meet with and get to know other, like minded students from around the world.
- Communication skills: The tournament is conducted in English, which is a second language for over half the participants and a great opportunity for them to learn more in an environment that parallels the business world. However even native English speakers will learn how to successfully navigate a multi-cultural environment and remove a reliance on local idiom.