International Physics Olympiad Part I

Well, I've just arrived home from the International Physics Olympiad in Mexico. I was away for seventeen days, so my activities won't all fit in one post. I'll try to post four days at a time, starting with Sunday 5th to Wednesday 8th.

Sunday evening was devoted to a staff meeting (the students didn't arrive until Monday). Lucy and I met Alix at her place, whence we talked to Matt on the phone. He was in Oxford at that time, on his round-the-world physics trip. We did a bit of planning of what exams would be useful for the students to do. These were things like the Spanish IPhO, because of the common language, the Dutch IPhO, written by people including the new president of IPhO, and last year's IPhO, always a good indication of the direction in which IPhO is heading. We also discussed some of the practicalities of travelling with the team, because it was to be Lucy and my first time overseas with a team.

We did a bit of setting up on Monday morning before the students arrived. I needed to test the AC black box lab (a very common and basic experiment), and managed to get some nonsensical results by forgetting to connect the grounds. I think the students did the same, but I should really know better by now! Once the students arrived, they quickly got into the routine that would last three and a half days: one lab per day, one theory exam per day, and the rest of the time spent on theory questions.

There were various difficulties that had to be dealt with, but nothing I need to go into here. They were enough to make the week seem rather long. Alix mentioned that on Wednesday she had been talking to someone about what happened on Tuesday, forgetting that it was as recent as yesterday, and presumably confusing the person to whom she was talking.

We had a lot of marking to do, but that was almost the only part of our work. It was certainly gratifying (and relieving!) to see the students' work improve as the week progressed. There were many things we needed to remind them, but by remembering most of them they should be able to do well at IPhO. Keep watching for the next few posts, which will tell you how they did in fact perform.