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In my school's conceptual physics program, we give cumulative written tests after the first and second trimesters. In lieu of a final exam*, we are once again running the Woodberry Forest Conceptual Physics Tournament! This is a competition for 9th graders, to be held at 1:00 on Sunday May 19 2024. We've done this before, including the last two years after a pandemic-enforced break. We're happy to be back to annual.
*No, to be clear to all, we're not giving an A to the winner and an F to the person in last place. That's silly. We're just having a fun, competitive tournament, to determine a winner. Jurors engage in discussion and conversation with participants about their problems. Jurors then award scores and write comments for the participants; jurors aren't assigning grades!
How does this tournament work?
On May 1, I will reveal a slate of three problems to the 64 participants. These problems will be in the style of AP Physics 1 "paragraph response" questions. Except, rather than just answer in a paragraph, the students will spend the month of May setting up experiments to provide evidence for their answers. By tournament time, each student will be expected to be prepared to discuss the solution to two of the three problems, with both theoretical and experimental support.
At the tournament, each student will participate in two "physics fights." Think of these physics fights like a miniature version of a graduate thesis defense. Students will have a strict limit of two minutes to present their solution to a group of two or three jurors, who then will engage each student in conversation about the problem for five minutes. The students are evaluated by the jurors not only on the quality of their solution, but also on their ability to discuss the solution, to confidently hold a conversation with the jury.
Importantly, jurors are explicitly instructed on their primary role - to find out how much the students DO know, not merely to expose what they don't know.
How do the students prepare?
Starting on May 1, all conceptual physics classes the rest of the year will be devoted to tournament preparation. They'll work together to set up experiments in class, they'll be assigned to write up their solution as homework, they'll practice presenting. They'll get intense instruction and guidance from the conceptual physics teachers, from their peers in the AP classes, from those who've been through this tournament before.
We need jurors.
The key, I think, to any class project is external assessment. I and the other conceptual physics teachers will play the role of coach and advocate, always encouraging and helping the students to deepen their understanding of the problems and to improve their presentations. Our relationship will be purely supportive, enthusiastic, positive.
We can't then turn around and grill these same students as examiners! That'd be like our football team's coaching staff refereeing the state finals. Even -- especially -- if their officiating were fair, the coach-student relationship, both in before and after the game, would be irrevocably compromised.
So we need jurors. We can pay.
Would you like to come to Woodberry on May 19 to be a juror? We'd ask you to arrive at 11:30. We'll have a meeting of all jurors in our beautiful dining hall over lunch.
Then we'll ask you to be a juror for a couple of hours' worth of physics fights. You'll be partnered with several other examiners over the course of the afternoon, getting to know a diverse set of fun folks from all over. When all students have presented their two physics fights (to two separate juries), we'll gather the jurors for conversation, coffee, snacks, and their paycheck.
In any case, our goal is to be done by 3:30, or possibly 4:00 if there are logistical issues. No later -- our students will be attending the final seated meal with their advisors that night followed by study hall, so we can't run late.
We will pay you $100 plus lunch for your time. (If you're coming from more than a few hours away, we can put you up on campus on Saturday or Sunday night - please let me know if you're interested in this option!) I think you'd find that the camaraderie among the jurors and the engagement with the students will make the trip worthwhile.
Who's eligible as an juror?
Anyone who has passed a college-level physics class. This includes alumni of your advanced physics class, even if they're still juniors or seniors in high school - we've had several teachers bring a caravan of students, and they've had an awesome time. We've had local college or graduate students on juries, we've had parents, alumni, colleagues who teach other subjects, grandparents, friends... Anyone willing to engage in conversation about physics at the high school level, as long as you can recognize good and bad physics, we'd love to have you. We are looking for a diverse juror pool, which especially includes diversity in age - truly, we want folks in their teens as well as folks in their 70s, and everywhere in between. When I ran the USIYPT, I found the mixture of undergraduate / graduate / professor / high school teacher / industrial physicist / retired physicist on the juror panel allowed some amazing relationships to develop. I'd love to create a similar vibe here.
How can I sign up?
Send me an email via greg dot jacobs at woodberry dot org. I'll send you more information, including the three problems, and our current draft of the scoring rubric.
We would like to get 45 jurors - pretty much the first 45 who sign up. I can't wait to see some blog readers! I'll even introduce you and your students to my pet hippopotamus, Edna. :-)
