St Peter's 18th Annual Physics Olympics

St Peter’s hosted the 18th annual Physics Olympics competition for Year 8 pupils last Wednesday, with twenty-four schools taking part this year in an exciting day of physics!

The teams took part in a broad range of physics, maths, problem-solving and practical skills-based challenges. In the labs, the challenges were:

• Hard to Resist – Children solved a puzzle to put resistors in the correct order of resistance, with only electrical current to guide them.

• High Times – Teams built a tall tower using only old newspapers and masking tape.

• Animal Crackers - Pupils found the upthrust of an animal shaped Helium balloon using the principle of moments.

• Colour Code - Teams transmitted a code using flashing LED lights along a fibre-optic cable.

• Good Vibes - Teams used the frequency of a vibrating string to calculate an unknown mass.

Teams also participated in a very challenging ‘Fermi Quiz’ to top it off, which required pupils to estimate various quantities to the nearest power of ten. The winner of this quiz was presented with the Morris Shield.

Each challenge had a numerical outcome, allowing the teams to be ranked. Prizes were then awarded for the teams winning each of the challenges, and an overall gold, silver and bronze.

All the pupils got stuck into the challenges right from the beginning and had lots of fun taking part in the event, with feedback from the pupils and teachers being very positive. Pupils certainly discovered a few physics ideas they had not experienced before, learning to collaborate and work against the clock too.

The winners of the Fermi Quiz, Yarm School, also won the overall event. Pocklington School finished second, with The Grammar School at Leeds coming in third.

Our own team of Senior School pupils finished 5^th overall, winning two of the five challenges - a very creditable performance!

Head of Physics Mr Parr, who did such a fantastic job organising the Physics Olympics, stated  "The visiting teams really hit the ground running with this year's challenges and as ever, we have been amazed by how well the children have perform with these difficult physics puzzles and problems - often outperforming the visiting teachers, who also like to have a go themselves. The Physics Olympics was an incredible team effort from all of the staff involved at St Peter’s, and a huge thank you goes them and to Lower 6th students that helped with the challenges on the day."

Thank you and congratulations to all the visiting schools, who travelled from across the North, including Newcastle, Leeds, Harrogate and York. A special congratulations to the winners of the events and we hope all the schools come back next year for some more physics fun!

Another big thank you to all the Sixth Form pupils and staff who helped out all day and ensured the smooth running of the event.

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