International Young Physicists' Tournament

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The International Young Physicists' Tournament (IYPT) ("Physics World Championship") is an international competition held between teams from secondary schools. The pupils should solve complicated scientific questions, present them in a convincing form and defend them in discussions ( physics fights ).

procedure

Task

Every year 17 tasks (so-called problems ) are set by an international committee ( International Organizing Committee ). The tasks come from many areas of physics and are often interdisciplinary.
These are not tasks for which ready-made solutions or solutions exist. Much more it is a question of deliberately "openly" formulated problems. They are tasks that can be viewed from different angles and with different approaches. During the preparatory phase, the participants and their supervisor should try to acquire knowledge about the problem posed . In principle, all conceivable methods are allowed and desired. The purpose of this type of task is to put the participants in the position of a researcher who is also confronted with unknown problems and questions.

The problems for the IYPT are therefore publicly announced about a year before the actual competition. This gives the participants enough time for experiments, literature and internet research, if necessary a conversation with an expert, etc. Teamwork and organizational skills naturally play an important role.

Preparatory phase

One of the most important aspects is preparation for the tournament. It pursues two main goals: On the one hand, the participants should acquire as much background knowledge as possible about the tasks. This is necessary in order to be stable in a discussion and either to be able to defend one's own point of view well or to criticize the opposing point of view. On the other hand, of course, the main focus is on somehow packing everything you have found out for a task into a good presentation.

The tournament

The tournament itself consists of several rounds, called physics fights or just fights for short. First the so-called selective fights take place. These are roughly comparable to the "group games" in soccer tournaments. All teams take part in the Selective Fights. Since the last major rule reform in 2001, the IYPT has held five selective fights. The teams that are best ranked in terms of points after the Selective Fights advance to the final, in which the winning team is ultimately determined.

The Selective Fights

At the beginning of the tournament there is a draw in which groups of three teams are formed. If the total number of teams is not divisible by three, one or two groups of four are formed. Each of these groups then conducts the first selective fight (at the same time). According to a scheme known before the draw, the teams then change groups so that the same teams do not always compete against each other in all fights. This process is repeated until all Selective Fights have been carried out.

Structure of a fight

A fight is divided into three or four so-called "stages", depending on whether three or four teams take part. This is because each team has a specific role during a stage. These roles are then switched through after each stage, so that after three (or four) stages each team has each role exactly once.

The roles are:

  • reporter
  • opponent
  • Reviewer
  • only for groups of four: Observer

The exact meaning of these roles is explained in more detail in the explanation of the course of a stage.

Course of a stage

A so-called "stage" is a part of a fight, comparable to, for example, a single "run" of a ski race. A stage lasts approx. 45–55 minutes and is carried out without interruption. On the other hand, between the individual stages of a fight there is usually a break of around 5–15 minutes, depending on the time available.

At the beginning of a stage, the teams and the jurors usually introduce themselves briefly, and the chairman of the jury reads the distribution of roles (reporter, opponent, reviewer, observer) for the upcoming stage.

After this informal part, the actual stage begins, the sequence of which is precisely defined by the rules. Each of the phases described below has a precisely defined maximum time that it can last. Compliance with these times is closely monitored. As an aid, there is a separate monitor on which the remaining time is graphically displayed clearly for everyone. The following explanations are only intended to show the structure and sequence of events. For a precise overview of the timing, please refer to the official tournament rules, which can be found on the IYPT website.

After the mentioned performance, the actual stage begins with the opponent team selecting one of the 17 problems and asking the reporter team to present their solution to this problem. The reporter team can accept or reject the task. In this case, the opponent team has to choose another task. This is repeated until a task is accepted by the reporter team. Too frequent rejection of tasks (more than 3 times) during the entire tournament leads to point deductions for the reporter team.

If the task has been selected for the stage, there is a five-minute preparation time for the reporter team, which is usually used to find or prepare necessary documents, to think through your own presentation briefly, or possibly to set up an experiment that is to be shown.

After this preparation time, the reporter team has a maximum of twelve minutes to present their solution. The exact form in which this presentation takes place is up to the reporter team; there are no specifications.

After the reporter's presentation, the opponent team has the opportunity to ask a few questions in order to clear up any confusion. Then the floor (also after a short preparation time) goes to the opponent, who now has the opportunity to present the positive and negative aspects of the reporter's presentation in his opinion.

This critical speech by the opponent is followed by an equal discussion between reporter and opponent, in which both the reporter has the opportunity to react to the criticism of the opponent and, conversely, the latter can raise further criticism and questions.

Following the discussion, the third team, the reviewer team, is given the opportunity to first ask clarifying questions to the two other teams and then, after a short preparation time, to also take the floor and emphasize the positive and negative aspects of the other two teams again.

At the end the reporter has the floor again and can make a few concluding remarks.

Last but not least, the jurors also have the opportunity to ask questions to all three teams. Then the jurors evaluate the performance of the teams in the current stage. The evaluation concludes the stage.

In fights with four teams, there is also the observer team in addition to the reporter, opponent and reviewer. However, this does not take an active part in what is happening, only observes. Of course, the Observer team is therefore not rated. The only point of the Observer team is to allow groups of four teams if the total number of teams is not a multiple of three.

After a break, the team continues with the next stage, with the teams changing roles until each team was once a reporter, once an opponent and once a reviewer (or, in groups of four, an observer).

There are also a few details worth mentioning:

  • All communication between the teams and the jury will be in English.
  • The team members are not allowed to speak to outsiders (e.g. the team leader) during the fight.
  • Otherwise, all aids (books, laptops, notes, ...) are allowed.
  • Only one team member takes on the active role of reporter, opponent or reviewer during a stage. This means that basically this one person speaks for the team during the entire stage and the other team members are only allowed to make brief comments or to assist with the presentation or experiments.
  • During a fight, a single team member may only be active a maximum of 2 times. In other words: The same team member is not allowed to act as reporter, opponent and reviewer.

The final

The three best-ranked teams after the five selective fights take part in the finals. In principle, this is exactly the same as a selective fight. There are only two small differences:

  • Each team chooses the task they want to present themselves.
  • Each team member may only act once (instead of twice as in the Selective Fights) as a reporter, opponent or reviewer.

The best team in the final is the winning team. The other two finalists share 2nd place. 3rd prize goes to all teams that have achieved a certain minimum number of points (determined by the organizing committee).

Teams

Each invited country sends a team. Until 2007 there was an exception that allowed the host country to have two teams compete. The teams each consist of five high school students (not universities), with one student ( captain ) leading the team during the Physics Fights . Each team is supervised by two teachers (called "team leaders").

The German team has been formed by the German Young Physicists' Tournament since 2013 . In Austria and Switzerland, the national team is determined by a qualification tournament, the Austrian Young Physicists 'Tournament and the Swiss Young Physicists' Tournament, respectively. The Russian Young Physicists Tournament has existed since 1975.

jury

The jury is nominated and organized by the host country, with team supervisors being used as members of the jury, but not in the groups in which their own team competes. The jurors award grades that are weighted differently depending on the tasks of the teams.

Venues

winner

year winner 2nd place
1989 West Germany , Bulgaria
1990 Soviet Union
1991 Hungary
1992 Belarus , Czechoslovakia
1993 Georgia Ukraine , Hungary
1994 Czech Republic , Russia Georgia
1995 Germany , Hungary Hungary
1996 Czech Republic Germany , Georgia 2
1997 Hungary , Czech Republic Belarus
1998 Czech Republic Germany 2 , Poland
1999 Germany Georgia , Austria 1
2000 Poland 2 Germany , Russia
2001 Slovakia Australia , Germany
2002 Poland Belarus
2003 Germany Korea , Poland
2004 Poland Germany , Slovakia
2005 Germany Belarus , USA
2006 Croatia Korea , Germany
2007 Australia Korea , New Zealand
2008 Germany Croatia , New Zealand
2009 Korea Austria , New Zealand

Starting with the IYPT in 2010, new rules regarding final placements were introduced.

year Winner, gold medal, 1st prize Gold medal, 1st prize Silver medal, 2nd prize Bronze medal, 3rd prize
2010 Singapore Austria , New Zealand , Korea Germany , Taiwan , Iran , Australia , Slovakia China , Sweden , Croatia
2011 Korea Austria , Germany Taiwan , Iran , Slovakia , Singapore Belarus , Sweden , Poland
2012 Korea Iran , Singapore Belarus , Germany , Taiwan , Switzerland , Austria Slovakia , Brazil , Georgia , Russia , New Zealand , France
2013 Singapore Korea , Switzerland Poland , Slovakia , New Zealand , Brazil , Austria Germany , People's Republic of China , Sweden , Bulgaria , Taiwan
2014 Singapore Slovakia , Poland , People's Republic of China Korea , New Zealand , Taiwan , Russia , Germany Austria , Sweden , United Kingdom , Belarus , Switzerland

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