How to get Started with a Physics Competition as a High Schooler
If you are a high school student interested in furthering your physics and STEM skills in a competition-style way, participating in a physics competition may be the way for you. Unfortunately, many physics enthusiasts, although interested in participating in a physics competition, find it difficult to find accessible resources that explain the process end-to-end. In this blog, we will discuss how to get started competing in a physics competition, as well as explain exactly what a physics competition is and the benefits of participating in one.
What is a Physics Competition?
A physics competition is an effective way of testing a student's knowledge within the sphere of physics, as well as math and engineering. Often, students will participate in an olympiad or research conference/science fair to showcase their efforts, experiences, and learnings within the sphere of physics and STEM as a whole.
Why Participate in a Physics Competition?
There are various reasons that many individuals, especially high school students, may partake in a physics competition.
Knowledge Gain
When preparing for a physics competition, participants must dive into learning the nitty-gritty of physics topics such as thermodynamics, electricity, and magnetism, far beyond the sort of information they would receive from classes at school. If the competition involves performing novel research, students also have the chance to make groundbreaking findings within physics that can have a real impact on the world.
Application Boost
Choosing to participate in a physics competition and furthering your interest in physics and STEM helps many high school students stand out while applying to colleges, internships, summer programs, and beyond. Winning such competitions further boosts one’s application by displaying their dedication and overall intelligence.
Evaluate Your Knowledge Against Others
Participating in a physics competition lets you see how you compare to others in terms of knowledge, experience, and teamwork. The sort of healthy competition that a physics competition provides encourages students to improve in their respective ways, making these competitions both insightful and reflective.
Grow Valuable Connections
Whether it be teammates, parents, coaches, or even judges, participating in a physics competition lets you gain valuable connections within the field of physics and overall the larger sphere of STEM. Such networking can be incredibly useful later on while searching for internships, jobs, research positions, and so much more.
How do I Participate in a Physics Competition?
Find and Register for an Event
There are various physics competitions currently offered to high school students, and each student is able to pick the specific competition(s) that interest them the most. Although there are no required prerequisites in terms of knowledge for any of these, it is a good idea to have strong algebra and basic trigonometry skills. Below are some popular physics competitions.
International Physics Olympiad
The International Physics Olympiad is a physics competition that tests high school students’ knowledge of physics concepts like thermodynamics and mechanics on an individual scale. Physics tests held locally serve as the qualifying round for students, which, if passed, will let students move on to ultimately the international level.
ExploraVision
The ExploraVision challenge asks high schoolers to identify a real-world problem in the sphere of STEM, including the fields of physics, and envision what a current technology may look like 10 years from now, while evaluating benefits, losses, improvements, and current solutions along the way. Students compete in teams of 2-4 individuals.
Physics Bowl
The Physics Bowl is another international competition that starts with tests at the school level and then works its way up. Much like the International Physics Olympiad, while this physics competition starts as individual-based, the students with the top five scores per division team up together for the final parts of the competition.
National Science Bowl
The National Science Bowl is a competition that tests students’ knowledge in specifically math and science, including subfields like physics, energy, Earth science, biology, math, and chemistry. The competition is in a team format of 4-5 students per team, and regional winners throughout the United States are invited to Washington D.C. for the national finals.
International Science And Engineering Fair
The International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) is a research showcase and competition in a variety of disciplines, including physics. Projects can be completed in any field of interest, either individually or in groups of two or three. Students must participate and qualify for ISEF through their local ISEF-affiliated science fair first. Judges evaluate which projects show the highest promise in novel discovery and applicability, and only around 2-5% of students from local fairs qualify for the prestigious international level.
At some high schools, students can join school teams for physics competitions through school clubs. If you would prefer to join a community team, connections, community newsletters, and online forums can all help you connect to a team.
Identify Necessary Materials and Begin Preparing
Often, the website of the physics competition you choose should provide you with details on what you will need to do and how to participate. For olympiads, the study materials and curriculum they will be following are also often available here. Additional resources can be found in online forums, and, depending on the competition, a team coach.
If the physics competition you select involves research, also check on the website of the competition you are interested in to see if they have any rules and regulations regarding which fields of research you can participate in. Generally, research competitions in physics are more open-ended, so you can explore a broader range of topics while determining what to perform research on.
If you would like some guidance from professionals while working on your physics research, consider receiving mentorship from a university alumnus via the AI+X Research Mentorship program by Inspirit AI.
As part of the 1-to-1 AI+X Research Mentorship, students can select to do a project in any field that interests them and receive guidance on everything from collecting the data to writing a culminating research paper in the end, which can be submitted to prestigious conferences and science fairs, like the International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF).
No matter which physics competition you select, make sure that you create a schedule for yourself in order to stay on track and have ample time to prepare for the competition. Last-minute cramming seldom works! If you are participating as part of a team, ensure you meet often and stay productive.
If you are interested in looking into the computer science side at the introductory level of some of the physics and engineering concepts you learn, such as autonomous vehicles, the Inspirit AI Scholars program may just be for you.
Within this program, you will learn about the basics of artificial intelligence (AI) from the graduates of top universities. Concepts taught include computer vision, natural language processing (NLP), and convolutional neural networks (CNNs). Students culminate their experience by creating a project in their field of interest, from astronomy to healthcare to automobiles, and apply AI concepts in these fields to positively impact our world. Experience from this program will be extremely valuable if you choose to continue by pursuing the AI+X Research Mentorship program.
Participate in Mock Competitions
Whether this be through practice tests, local showcases, online events, or inter-team practice quizzing and judging, testing your knowledge and presentation skills in a setup that mimics that of a real physics competition helps to give you a better idea of what to expect on the big day. Additionally, mock competitions can help you identify your strengths and weaknesses and accordingly target each subsection.
Compete!
Based on the type of physics competition you selected and how high you advance, you may be competing on various days for various rounds, have various rounds all on one day, or simply have one competition. Make sure that you get a good night’s rest the night before and eat a healthy, nutritious breakfast before you compete. Staying in a clear state of mind will be extremely helpful.
About Inspirit AI
AI Scholars Live Online is a 10 session (25-hour) program that exposes high school students to fundamental AI concepts and guides them to build a socially impactful project. Taught by our team of graduate students from Stanford, MIT, and more, students receive a personalized learning experience in small groups with a student-teacher ratio of 5:1.
