SIUE Physics Contest: April 29, 2006

 

The Physics Department of Southern Illinois University Edwardsville will sponsor the Twenty-first Annual SLAPT High School Physics Competition to be held on our campus on Saturday, April 29, 2006. There will also be a SLAPT workshop occurring during the exam. Led by Jack Glassman and Rebecca Lindell both from SIUE, they will share their latest developments in an inquiry-based, constructivist centered activities for Light and Color.

 

The contest itself, open to all high school students, will be have two different exams. Students can only take one of the tests. The first exam will be only mechanics and consist of 50 multiple-choice questions. The cash prizes for this exam will be: First Prize of $100, Second Prize of $50, and Third Prize of $25. We will present Certificates of Honorable Mention to the next highest scoring twenty percent of the contestants, and we will award certificates to the top three scoring schools.

 

The second exam will consist of 50 multiple choice questions with one or two tiebreaker problems, and will include both qualitative and quantitative questions. The numbers of questions covering the various topics will be: mechanics (18), waves (5), sound (3), fluids (1), thermodynamics (4), electricity and magnetism (11), optics (5), and modern physics (3). The cash prizes for this exam will be: First Prize of $150, Second Prize of $75, and Third Prize of $25. We will present Certificates of Honorable Mention to the next highest scoring twenty percent of the contestants, and we will award certificates to the top three scoring schools.

 

For both exams we will again allow calculators of all types. It is the responsibility of the teacher to ensure that all calculator memories are cleared. We will supply the values of physical constants, but no equations. The students are not allowed to bring a formula sheet. Each contestant may keep a copy of the test, but we will not return the graded answer sheets. We will send a list of all winners to teachers with students participating in the competition along with statistics on the test results. Individual scores will be kept confidential, except that we will report the score of each contestant to his or her teacher.

 

The tests will run from 9:00 AM until 11:00 AM followed by a 1-1/2 hour lunch break and an award ceremony lasting from 12:30 until 1:00 PM. Students should arrive at 8:40 am. The test and awards ceremony will take place in the Science Building on SIUE's campus in the first floor auditorium (SL1105). Parking is free in Lot A, which is directly north of the science building. A map of nearby restaurants will be provided.

 

To register, please send an email to tfoster@siue.edu with your full contact information and a list of student names (and which test they will be taking) by April 27, 2006. There will be no fee for entering the competition. We will be able to accommodate 200 students.

 

Contest Results

For the Twenty-First Annual SLAPT Physics Competition there were two tests this year. The Mechanics test had 50 questions and 18 students took this test. The average score on the test was 26.6 and the high score was a 44. There were six honorable mention certificates given out for scores above 27. The individual winners were:
FIRST PRIZE ­ Paul Orland, Clayton High School
SECOND PRIZE ­ Brittany Huhmann, Helias High School
THIRD PRIZE ­ Brian Beney, McCluer North High School
The school winners were:
FIRST PLACE ­ Parkway South High School
SECOND PLACE ­ Helias High School

The Senior Physics test had 50 questions and 29 students took this test. The average score on the test was 34.0 and the high score was a 47. There were six honorable mention certificates given out for scores above 36. The individual winners were:
FIRST PRIZE ­ Amar Srivastava, Clayton High School
SECOND PRIZE ­ Erik Brinkman, Clayton High School
THIRD PRIZE ­ Joe Mello Clayton High School
The school winners were:
FIRST PLACE ­ Clayton High School
SECOND PLACE ­ Westminister Christian Academy

We are working to improve attendance for next year by increasing the advertising of the contest. In that spirit, mark your calendars now for April 21, 2007.