United States Invitational Young Physicists Tournament

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. Phillips Exeter Academy won their second straight championship in 2019. The Harker School of San Jose, California has earned three championships, the most of any school. The 2020 tournament will be held at Phillips Exeter Academy on February 8-9.

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 of 77-72 against RDFZ of Beijing, due in part to an especially innovative approach to measuring Planck's constant conducted by Charlie Curnin and Kasey Luo in their high school laboratory.

In 2018, Randolph College hosted the largest-ever USIYPT, including fifteen schools from all over the US and the world. Phillips Exeter Academy won their first-ever trophy in their fourth year of participation.

At the 2019 tournament at Rye Country Day School, Phillips Exeter Academy won their second straight championship, with first-time attendees Phillips Andover Academy in second place. In the late stages of the tournament, Swartz Trophy winners Pioneer School of Ariana, Tunisia and The Harker School competed in the first partially student-juried physics fight.

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.

Results

List of Participating Schools

The Harker School, California – 10 tournaments, 3 championships

Rye Country Day School, New York – 12 tournaments, 2 championships

Phillips Exeter Academy, New Hampshire – 4 tournaments, 2 championships

Shenzhen Middle School, China – 8 tournaments, 2 championships

Woodberry Forest School, Virginia – 12 tournaments, 1 championship

Brisbane Girls Grammar School, Australia – 2 tournaments, 1 championship

Raffles Institution, Singapore – 1 tournament, 1 championship

Pioneer School of Ariana, Tunisia – 7 tournaments

Nanjing Foreign Language School, China – 5 tournaments

Princeton International School of Science and Mathematics, New Jersey – 4 tournaments

High School affiliated with Renmin University, China – 4 tournaments

Cary Academy, North Carolina – 4 tournaments

Phoenixville Area High School, Pennsylvania – 3 tournaments

Wildwood School, California – 3 tournaments

Qingdao No. 2 High School, China – 3 tournaments

Vanke Meisha Academy, China – 3 tournaments

Oak Ridge High School, Tennessee – 2 tournaments

North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics– 2 tournaments

Oregon Episcopal School – 2 tournaments

Vistamar School, California – 2 tournaments

Guilderland High School, New York – 2 tournaments

Pioneer School of Manzeh 8, Tunisia – 2 tournaments

Spartanburg Day School, South Carolina – 2 tournaments

The Nueva School, California – 2 tournaments

High School of Jur Hronec, Slovak Republic – 1 tournament

Calverton School, Maryland – 1 tournament

Madeira School, Virginia – 1 tournament

Georgian English-Spanish School, Tbilisi – 1 tournament

Phillips Andover Academy, Massachusetts – 1 tournament