Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Local physics students will compete in Beijing
A five-member team of recent local high school graduates will travel to Beijing, China, next week to complete in an international physics championship.
The members of the team all graduated last month and are 18 years old. They are Jarod Dogney and Ben Mellema from Octorara, Katherine Baker from Coatesville and Anthony Muzur and Eric Beeny from Phoenixville.
All five of these bright students share a keen interest in science and have said they intend to study science-engineering related subjects in college.
The name of the competition to which they are going is like an Olympics of science. It is called the International Young Physicists Tournament, and it has entrants from 30 countries around the world.
Octorara coach William McWatters said the annual competition has been around for 30 years, but has only sporadically been entered by the United States. He said he is hoping that with a successful performance by his team and more publicity that the number of schools that prepare candidates for the United States team increases in future years.
This year, schools from in California, Michigan and New Jersey in addition to the team from the Chester County team stated their intentions to try out. But when the qualifying rounds were held in Philadelphia at the University of the Sciences, only Chester County and New Jersey (the team from Princeton Institute of Science and Math) competed.
In that event, the Chester County team was triumphant and earned the trip.
Last year the team from Octorara also attended the international competition, which was held in Singapore. They finished in the mid-20s among the 30 nations that were entered. “We hope to finish in the top 15 this year,” Mellema said.
The team members this year have been working on their presentations, which they will give at the Beijing event in the form of a power point presentation. But before their presentations are all ready to go, each mem-
ber has to adopt that physics experiment, work out a solution and prepare to explain it.
The format of each participant’s event involves representatives from three nations and is done in the form of a debate. One physics students presents the experiment and conclusion. Another team (from another country) challenges it. A third team provides evaluation of the process to be given to the judges
Several of the Chester County team members explained their experiments:
Mellema has a project that involves levitating small Styrofoam balls with intersecting, ultra high frequency sound waves. He has benefitted from the equipment in the labs at Octorara, but in the end must show off his work through a series of slides. He said, “If is took my equipment with all those wires along, they probably wouldn’t even let me on the plane.”
Beeny’s experiment shows the effects of change in direction on a pendulum hung from a flexible beam. He said his overall high school education has been enriched by the tournament experience. “In this competition, you learn to articulate your positions in a way you don’t learn otherwise,” he said.
Baker is showing how alternating layers of water and air pressure move the liquid. “The presentation takes about an hour,” she said.
Throughout the school year, Mazur and Beeny have been working with their coach, Jay Jennings, while Mellema and Dogney have been working with McWatters. During the past few months, Baker has been coming over to Octorara from Coatesville to work with McWatters as well.
Last Thursday was the first time they actually all came together for a meeting.
The five team members are all headed to college in the fall. Dogney is going to University of Delaware. Mellema is going to Drexel. Baker will attend Ursinus. Mazur will go to Rochester Institute of Technology. Beeny will go to Haverford.
The team members will pay nothing for the trip and event because it is being financed by grants.