“We need to find the best students and invite them to an internship”, Hynek Němec has said.

He started out as a participant of the Young Physicists Tournament but he gradually transitioned from being a participant to being a juror and, momentarily, contributes to the event as one of its organisers. He would like to teach the young talents that research does not start by substituting into a formula and does not end by resolving a research problem. A great deal of success lies in the ability to formulate a research problem, and, above all, to present the results of the research to experts as well as the public. This applies equally to the Young Physicist Tournament which, together with his scientific activities at the Institute of Physics, belongs to his affairs of the heart.

“In our series of courses entitled Trip to Real Research Work in Physics (VYDRA), we are preparing various lectures for students on topics such as data processing, graph creation; we explore advanced mathematical systems, and as part of a practical seminar for university students, we encourage participants to independently work with measuring devices. The students have the opportunity to realize, for example, how much time and energy is needed to prepare and make a presentation. They cannot expect to be able to prepare a presentation poster in ten minutes,“ Němec explained.

The VYDRA courses are conceived to motivate students to actively look for solutions and procedures and not to allow them just to substitute variables into a formula. Last year at the Institute of Physics, the students worked at the Laboratory of Terahertz Spectroscopy while also exploring the methods of infrared spectroscopy. “Our research facilities are highly specialized and students are only allowed to work under supervision, so in the coming years we will make more use of apparatuses for university seminars, “ Němec said, revealing some of the plans. Students are asked to present their data measurement results on posters they design on their own to an audience consisting of the other participants of the Tournament as well as of secondary school teachers from the Christian Doppler Grammar School, who attended the event this year for the first time.

Hynek Němec has targeted secondary schools also in another, similar activity. Together with the Institute of Physics, he is a co-applicant for Erasmus+ DIBALI (Development of Inquiry Based Learning via IYPT), a programme aimed at helping secondary school teachers formulate and develop research-oriented curriculum in physics. In this effort, teachers find inspiration in tasks in physics originating from the national level of the Young Physics Tournament.

“In a typical classroom, there are about four students with deeper interest in physics but the teacher needs to consider the majority of the students to be able to adapt the lesson,” Němec said, adding that: “We need to select talented students and give them enough space for further development, which is something that the teachers are aware of, and the best of the them send their students to internships, competitions and other activities.”

We were holding the first meeting of teams and jurors with the competitors from the previous years just as the participants proceeded to work on the seventeen tasks. “We were finding out how to improve the work of the teams and how to best support both the participants and their teachers. Apart from that, we stepped in once the teams have clearly understood what the tasks of the Tournament are about, to try giving them a feedback,” Němec explained. Most tasks are designed to encourage students‘ creativity - for example when they are asked to create a device of minimum dimensions to be used to prevent an egg from breaking when it falls down from two metres above the ground. “They are expected to engage all available means to resolve the task, from the design and the assembly of a measuring device to theoretical description of the observed phenomena or computer simulation, he adds.

The preliminary meeting prior to the actual regional level of the Tournament was attended by 30 students from six competing teams, accompanied by their physics teachers. At the moment, their observations and proposals are scrutinized by organisers working to improve the competition system to better simulate a realistic research practice. The competition is unique as students are asked to present their own solution and to discuss solutions by their competitors, whereby not only the quality of the solution but also of its presentation and the discussion are put in the spotlight.

The winner of the competition bringing together more than 12 secondary schools represents the Czech Republic in an international competition. In 2018, the Czech team succeeded in winning a silver medal in the competition of 32 international teams.

The Trip to Real Research Work in Physics (VYDRA) project is under the auspices of the Union of Czech Mathematicians and Physicists, with assistance provided by the Institute of Physics, Faculty of Nuclear and Physical Sciences of the Czech Technical University as well as the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics of Charles University, and is co-funded as part of the State Programme to Support Activities for Children and Youth for the NNO via The Union of Czech Mathematicians and Physicists.

The Young Physicists Tournament reflects the latest trends in education. It gives students the opportunity to learn how to apply research methods in a team of co-workers - from formulating a hypothesis to its application and presentation, and the opportunity to encounter methods of research-oriented education on the part of their teachers. The organisation committee of the Tournament brings together representatives of the academy as well as of universities involved in physical sciences throughout the country.

By: Petra Köppl

Date: 30th March 2020