The New Zealand Young Physicists’ Tournament is open to all students studying for NCEA Level 3 or equivalent in Physics. It uses the research problems of the International Young Physicists’ Tournament as the basis for
- Selecting a NZ Representative team to compete at the IYPT
- Holding a national team tournament for schools
These two competitions are complimentary but have seperate schedules to give the Representative team enough time to do additional research.
The International Tournament set seventeen problems in July each year. The Trust selects seven of these for the New Zealand Tournament and release them in August the year prior to the National schools’ tournament. Students research these problems through simple experiments, linking them to theory. Between them, the team members need to prepare solutions to at least three and ideally five of the seven NZ research problems.
Here are the seven problems for the 2026 New Zealand Tournament
NATIONAL SCHOOLS’ TEAM TOURNAMENT
At the tournament, teams of three students 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 whose work uses tertiary level physics. The cumulative scores from three matches decides the top teams in the country.
A school may enter up to two teams of three students. Schools can also combine to form a team so long as one of the teacher from those schools supports them. One teacher MUST attend the tournament with each team as the teacher will act as Juror.
The 2026 Tournament is being held on Auckland on March 21st. The schedule will be confirmed as term 1 starts.
SELECTION FOR THE NZ REPRESENTATIVE TEAM
Students seeking a place on the Representative team must submit a video of their reseach on one problem before February 14th. The video is a stand alone version of the presentation they might give in the teams tournament.
Sudents sending the strongest sixteen entries will be slected as “possibles” and invited to attend the team selection camp over the weekend of February 28th and 1st March.
The five students team to compete in Zurch will be announced on March 8th.
The NZ team undertake more research on the remaining IYPT problems between April and June to prepare for the International Tournament in Zurich, Switzerland in early July 2026. They are supported with regular online meetings and three further training camps to suppor their work.
The full tournament rules are here and we have some student resources here.
Making the most of the problems
Participation in the Tournament reinforces NCEA level 3 achievement standard 91521. I
The problems can be used as material for science clubs and examination projects so long as their IYPT origin is acknowledged/referenced. These are both ways to extend research time for students and avoids the time pressures of doing everything in term one.
TEACHERS wishing to enter teams for the 2026 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. 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..
Consider a two year engagement
Our students are face an additional challenge in the International Tournament because it’s schedule follows the Northern hemisphere’s academic year. In New Zealand there is big gap in the experimentation time between July to January each year, when first external exams and then holidays rightly take priority for students. We have identified a participation pattern that many of the strongest rep team members have inadvertently followed. As a result we are encourage this two year participation process with this year’s timetable.
The 2027 Tournament will schedule the workshop in August 2026 to support revision of practical papers and launch the seven 2027 problems for New Zealand.