The 28th International Physics Olympiad was held this year in Sudbury,
Canada. 266 high school physics students from 54 countries took two
grueling exams, one theoretical (problems) and one practical (laboratory),
last week. The United states participated for the twelfth year, and for the
third straight year, all 5 US representatives won medals (1 gold, 1 silver,
3 bronze). The overall winner was Russia (4 gold, 1 silver) with 211
points, followed closely by China (3 gold, 2 silver) with 210.5 points.
Iran was third (1 gold, 3 silver, 1 bronze) with 194 points. The USA
finished 6th with 180.25 points.
I urge all subscribers to this list to support the US Physics Team and the
IphO program. Nomination for the US Physics Team is a great way to reward
your top students. The cost is rather modest ($20 for the first nominee
from each school and $10 for all subsequent), and that is the only cost any
student bears throughout the cycle. Those chosen for the team (25 of the
nominees) are invited to a one week training camp at U. of Maryland in late
May/early June, and the 5 chosen for the "travelling squad" then go on to
the international competition, which will be in Rekjavik, Iceland in 1998,
and Milan, Italy in 1999. All expenses for the training camp and the trip
to the competition are borne by the sponsoring organizations, AIP and AAPT
from funds they raise for the purpose from other physics organizations and
from corporations.
The selection process begins with teacher nominations in January, a
preliminary and a semi-final exam, and selection of the team in early
April. Second-year students do have an advantage in qualifying because they
have seen more physics, but each year at least half of the team is made up
of students who have just completed their first year of physics, and most
often that has been a non-calculus course. I will admit, however, that not
many of the students on the team have not had at least one year of calculus
before arriving at the training camp. I have had several students selected
for the team over the past few years, and every one of them has come away
from the training camp feeling good about themselves and about physics,
whether they were selected for the travelling squad or not. The students
truly come from all over the country, and not all from the fancy big city
schools. There have been several from small rural schools and they have
acquitted themselves well.
I have copies of the past several years' qualifying exams. If anyone is
interested in pursuing this further and has a student they think will be
competitive, send me a message and I'll mail you a set of problems with
solutions that you can use to coach your student nominee(s). They could be
a gold medal winner next summer in Iceland!
The box said "Requires Windows 95 or better." So I bought a Macintosh.
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