Originally published in April 2022, access restored April 2024.
This essay shall not be taken as a direct address to any particular individuals with whom I interfaced at this weekend’s unnamed national-level physics competition event, where I have served as a judge for quite some time now.
2022 has also been the first year I have grown wise enough to remove the “High School Honours and Achievements” section from my own CV. From a perspective not so far removed from that change, I hope I can explain why I both feel bad about the event in its current format, and will be like extending my participation through the rest of my residency in Auckland.
In Series …
THE APERIODICALS
Local (personal, potentially shallow, and subject to change) outlooks on science, technology, growth, and occasionally culture and history. The goal is to write something every week, but whether it can make its way to FWPhys is random. Hence the series title.
Format and scoring
The annual inter-school physics competition we discuss, the local branch of a series of international tournaments, consists of seven (open-ended and often pulled out of a hat) physical models or problems, which the teams are officially given half a year to investigate and report.
On the days of the competition, in pairs, one team will challenge the other to present their results to a few of these problems, and vice versa.
Their final marks are determined by the team member’s understanding of relevant physics (practical and theoretical), scientific communication, and conduct at the event, especially when discussing matters with their opponents. A strategic factor is also present — a team that refuses to present too many questions will face penalties.
This concludes the general introduction to the format and timespan of the event each year. I hope it provides some useful background and context for my general reader.
Glory to the Middle Achievers
I hardly find watching the competition for the top team the most compelling part of the event. There will be one; it will come from one of the few well-funded and famous schools; that is about it.
The issue I take with events like this is a long-standing one. To try and put it in one brief sentence,
under-previlaged students who are genuinely curious and driven about physics do not win this physics competition.
Of course, for the winners, there are international tours to an exotic holiday destination where they do the global finals (before the pandemic years), cool medals to put in cabinets, glowing entries to wow college admissions officers, and so on. As someone who emotionally frustrated over my second-place ranking in the national university entrance physics exam for years, naturally, I understand why. That, to many, winning in things like this seems to be of so much importance that it justifies the taciturn acceptance of unfair advantages. Against the backdrop of a class-stratified society where educational equity is but a distant idea impossible to realize, this is unavoidable.
Not that I am asking the technical and financial elites’ kids to give up their plane tickets for
If you know me, you know that the idea of undertaking any kind of scientific investigation for the sole and express purpose of reaping success and recognition leaves a sour taste in my mouth. Not I am against scientists making a living out of their work — my doctoral scholarship pays for FWPhys servers, after all, but there should be more guidance between wanting to use an event like this to further master physics (do new experiments, learn new mechanisms, or just learn how to better communicate), v
The kids are often excused from wanting to score more and — — but I would have hoped the system: instructors, organisers, and judges, to be more aware of this and supply them with suitable guidance.
The lead organiser, who happens to have taught some of my high school physics, would start each year’s event by encouraging all participants to understand that the scores are spread out [1,10] to help differentiate performances that are all good and close, and one shan’t despair over a low mark because of that.
And dear fellow participating students, I do hope your understanding of this system is better than I feared.
I am aware that there are people who remember me in an animous and negavie light
Level Playing Field
One of my less recounted side-ventures in my undergraduate years was working for an organisation of the same name during my (limited™) free time at Berkeley.
Looking Ahead
The meaning of the section title is two-fold. To look ahead in knowledge content when competing, and to look ahead in your career paths.
Yourong Frank Wang 