International Young Physicists' Tournament
The International Young Physicists' Tournament, IYPT, is a competition
between teams of 5 students from upper secondary schools, up to the age
of 18 or 19, depending on the education system in the country. The 17 open
problems to be dealt with are published almost a year in advance. In the
competition the participating students report on their solutions in so
called Physics Fights, as part of a structured competition. In one such
fight the teams act as Reporter, Opponent and Reviewer in turn.
During the reporting phase, the team has to present its solution of one of the 17 problems selected by the opposing team. During 12 minutes, students may present theoretical solutions, experiments, computer models etc. After that, the opposing team has a few minutes to post questions and then one of its students presents a structured opposition of not more than five minutes. After that, 10 minutes are reserved for discussion about the solution between the Reporter and the Opponent.
Reviewing team has 3 minutes to post questions to both Reporter and Opponent. After that, Reviewer presents its view on the whole performance and to the Reporter is given a chance to comment during concluding remark.
The evaluation of the performance is made by an international scientific jury. After short question-answer session, the jury presents its grading in figure-skating style.
Basic asset of YPT in comparison to other similar activities is mainly the combination of following aspects:
- Team work
- Long-term work on an open problem
- Cooperation with teachers and scientists, including independent information search and evaluation
- Direct (face to face) competition with other student
Benefits for teachers taking part in YPT include:
- Motivation of more students in physics and hard sciences (often a whole class starts to be truly interested in some problems)
- Gaining contacts in scientific sphere
- Further education and development
- Increasing the prestige of the subject and the school