Students Win Silver at International Young Physicist Tournament

New Zealand secondary school students have won a silver medal at the 21st International Young Physicist Tournament held recently in Trogir, Croatia.

The IYPT is a competition among teams of secondary school students that tests their ability to solve complicated scientific problems. Teams both present solutions to these problems and defend them in scientific discussions called "Physics Fights".

This year 21 countries took part, including Australia, China and Iran. The competition was tightly contested with teams separated by as little as 0.1 of a point. In the final round the New Zealand team gained the highest score of the entire tournament to get them into the final, up against Croatia and Germany. This is the second year in a row New Zealand has made the final.

The teams success exemplifies the results of recent PISA studies into science literacy, which found that when compared to their international counterparts New Zealand students have particular strengths in identifying scientific issues and the use of scientific evidence.

Details of team members:

Ben Paterson (captain) – King’s College, Auckland
Graeme Finnie – Onslow College, Wellington
Donald White – Pakuranga College, Auckland
Jed Bian – Auckland Grammar School
Yang Gao – Auckland Grammar School

Paul Haines - Co-ordinator NZ IYPT

For more information please contact Debbie Woodhall, email Debbie.woodhall@rsnz.org Tel (04) 470 5762, mobile 027 229 6380.