Yale Bulletin and Calendar

October 20, 2006|Volume 35, Number 7

Youngsters to tackle scientific
challenges at Yale Physics Olympics

The ninth annual Yale Physics Olympics for High School Students will be held Saturday, Oct. 21, on the Science Hill Quadrangle, 217 Prospect St.

Fifty teams of high school students from 40 schools in Connecticut, Rhode Island and New York will compete in a series of physics-related events beginning at 10 a.m. and culminating with an awards ceremony at 3:30 p.m. The public is invited as spectators and to cheer for their favorite team.

Using simple equipment and their own imaginations, teams compete to design and carry out solutions to a set of five experimental problems, some in indoor laboratories and some outside in the Kline Tower Quadrangle. All the tasks are designed to show the students that doing science, and physics in particular, is fun.

Each year the specific events are fashioned and run by Yale student and faculty volunteers. For the past two years, one of the organizers has been an undergraduate physics major who first participated in this program as a contestant in 2002. Many of the undergraduates who help run these events are only a year or two older than the competing students and serve as role models for the youngsters.

"This program has clearly had a very positive impact on the students, teachers and schools involved, and in 2003 it was recognized with an Elm-Ivy Award," says Peter Parker, professor of physics and astronomy at Yale and administrator of the program. "Many of the participating schools even bring alternate team members and 'observers' as a way to involve more of their students -- perhaps training them for next year."

The event has become so popular in recent years that there is now a waiting list for teams interested in participating. To make this program as accessible as possible and avoid the need for a registration fee to the participants, Yale's Department of Physics and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute sponsor the event. For further information, contact Parker at (203) 432-3099.

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Youngsters to tackle scientific challenges at Yale Physics Olympics

Campus Notes