The United States Invitational Young Physicists Tournament (USIYPT) is an annual physics research and debate tournament for high school students, held the last weekend in January. School-based teams of four students investigate several undergraduate-level research problems in preparation for the tournament. The competition itself consists of "physics fights," student-led debates over the quality of each team's solution. Teams are judged on their own solutions to the problems and on their ability to engage in evaluation and discussion of other teams' solutions. Rye Country Day School won their second championship in 2017. The Harker School of San Jose, California has earned three championships, the most of any school. The 2017 tournament was held at the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia; the 2018 tournament will be at Randolph College in Lynchburg, Virginia.
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History
The United States sent teams to the International Young Physicists' Tournament several times in the 2000s, and achieved a second-place finish in 2005. The nonprofit United States Association for Young Physicists Tournaments was incorporated in 2005, initially for the purpose of supporting and training the US team as well as to spread the pedagogical methodology of preparing and conducting the "physics fight." In 2007, the USAYPT organized their own Young Physicists Tournament, inviting school-based teams from around the world to debate over a slate of four research problems. The one-day event at the North Carolina School of Science and Math (NCSSM) included five teams, all from the United States; Woodberry Forest School won the inaugural championship.
The 2008 tournament, also at NCSSM, included the first "international" team: Brisbane Girls Grammar School. They faced Woodberry Forest School, a boys' boarding school in central Virginia. In the final physics fight, Brisbane's Sarah Thang and Samantha Luck outdueled Woodberry's Chris McLamb and Robert Bauer for the title.
For 2009 and 2010, the event was moved to Woodberry Forest School. Raffles Institution of Singapore beat out an eight-team field for the 2009 title. However, the "snowmaggedon" blizzard of February forced cancellation of the 2010 tournament. Instead, two informal mini-tournaments were held in April, one at Woodberry Forest School, one at the Harker School in California.
The USIYPT moved to Oak Ridge Associated Universities for 2011 and 2012, and expanded to a two-day, six-round event. Teams and jurors toured Oak Ridge National Laboratory in between sets of physics fights, viewing the High Flux Isotope Reactor and the Spallation Neutron Source. Official sponsorship in 2011 came from the University of Tennessee department of physics, among others. The Harker School won in 2011; Rye Country Day School of New York won in 2012. Oak Ridge High School won the first-ever Clifford Swartz Trophy for top performance in the tournament's poster session.
The 2014 tournament was held at the Harker School in San Jose, California. The Harker School won the title with playoff victories over Woodberry Forest School and Shenzhen Middle School on the "Magnet Stack" and "Ball Stack" problems. Guilderland High School of New York won the Clifford Swartz Trophy for best poster.
In 2015, the USIYPT moved back to Woodberry Forest School. The final rounds were switched to a pool-play format. The Harker School and Woodberry Forest met twice in those final rounds, with Harker edging Woodberry 79-77 for the 2016 title. Other finalists included Rye Country Day, who were 1/10 of a point off Woodberry's pace; and first-time USIYPT participant Renmin University High School of Beijing, China.
Second-year participant Phoenixville Area High School of Pennsylvania topped the standings after the preliminary rounds in the 2016 USIYPT. They, Harker, Rye Country Day School, and Shenzhen Middle School competed in the final rounds, with Shenzhen coasting to the championship.
At the 2017 tournament at the University of the Sciences, the Harker School was the highest ranked of the six teams who entered the playoff rounds. Rye Country Day School emerged from those rounds with a convincing victory, due in part to an especially innovative approach to measuring Planck's constant conductedin their high school laboratory. The four presenting members for Rye Country Day School were Charlie Curnin, Jeffrey Chen, Cate Mollerus (captain), and Varun Wadhwa.
The Physics Fight
The USIYPT consists of six preliminary rounds and a set of final rounds. In each round, called a "Physics Fight," a student from the reporting team presents a 10-minute summary of their research into one of the four official tournament problems. Next, a student from another team engages the reporter in a 12-minute conversation about the reporting team's project. This opponent is charged with helping the audience understand the strengths and weaknesses of the report by means of a series of discussion questions. Only after this conversation is complete are jury members allowed to question the presenting students directly. Teams are judged as much on their ability to ask and answer questions in the physics fight as on the quality of their initial presentations.
Teacher education
Unusual among science competitions, the USIYPT aims to improve physics teaching skills as well as student understanding of the subject. High school teachers are participating members of each school's research team. The sponsoring organization chooses problems for each tournament that are "nontrivial, but not impossible," whose solutions are not necessarily unknown to practicing professional physicists, but are generally new to high school teachers and students. Research is expected to be conducted primarily in each team's school, with direction and assistance from a teacher at that school.
List of Participating Schools
Rye Country Day School, New York, USA – 10 tournaments, 2 championships
Woodberry Forest School, Virginia, USA – 10 tournaments, 1 championship
The Harker School, California, USA – 8 tournaments, 3 championships
Shenzhen Middle School, China – 6 tournaments, 2 championships
Nanjing Foreign Language School, China – 5 tournaments
Pioneer High School of Ariana, Tunisia – 5 tournaments
Wildwood School, California, USA – 3 tournaments
Oak Ridge High School, Tennessee, USA – 2 tournaments
Brisbane Girls Grammar School, Australia – 2 tournaments, 1 championship
North Carolina School of Science and Math – 2 tournaments
Oregon Episcopal School, Oregon, USA – 2 tournaments
Vistamar School, California, USA – 2 tournaments
Guilderland High School, New York, USA – 2 tournaments
High School Affiliated to Renmin University of China, China - 3 tournaments
Princeton International School of Science and Mathematics, New Jersey, USA - 3 tournaments
Phoenixville Area High School, Pennsylvania, USA - 3 tournaments
High School of Jur Hronec, Slovak Republic – 1 tournament
Calverton School, Maryland, USA – 1 tournament
Raffles Institute, Singapore – 1 tournament, 1 championship
Madeira School, Virginia, USA – 1 tournament
Pioneer High School of Manzeh 8, Tunisia - 1 tournament
Georgian English-Spanish School, Tbilisi - 1 tournament
Phillips Exeter Academy, New Hampshire, USA - 2 tournaments
Cary Academy, North Carolina, USA - 2 tournaments
Qingdao No. 2 High School, China - 1 tournament
Vanke Meisha Academy, China - 1 tournament