Getting Organized

Here's a school team that started as three girls and two advisors from the beginning.
[Note that the kangaroo, "Shrodigger", was not an advisor.] The other teacher could not attend the Tournament.

These two teams were from the same school, had different advisors all year, couldn't talk to each other all year, and were fascinated what each team did independently... after they got to the Tournament.

This school uses the research class model. Who do you think made the final team from this bunch?

GETTING ORGANIZED	The first thing to do is to find some interested students at your school. All schools, students, and teachers are different, but the common thread among USAYPT people is a desire to build something AND to understand that something beyond the usual textbook+test experience. Some groups use formally-scheduled "research" classes. Some groups use extracurricular "science" clubs. That's up to you. Please contact a member of the Board as soon as possible if you intend to compete in the upcoming Tournament. We will give you a written Invitation to Compete and assign a point of contact from the USAYPT Board. Hopefully, the Invitation will help you with your school's administrative support of your "physics team"! The POC is a great source of ideas and helps the keep the Tournament organized as the year progresses. At your first group meeting, we urge you to make sure that everyone realizes who is "researching" and who is "competing". You as the teacher and up to one other teacher are the advisors. The students who form your team are the "performers". Most schools have more interested students than the permitted 2, 3, or 4 team members. You will have to make some choices. As long as everyone buys into the "journey is more important than the destination" idea, it will all work out. ALL teams must be prepared to present at least 3 of the 4 assigned problems. ONLY one rejection is permitted during Tournament play. There are TACTICS involved! We will get to those. ALL teams have to realize that this is a giant "take-home exam". Everyone across the country knows the questions for a year. So there are ETHICS involved! But the ethics are the same as those in science -- anything from outside the group must be acknowledged. You as a USAYPT member can bring ONE team. Therefore if your school decides to support two or more teams, those teams and their advisors must be separated. When do you meet? That's up to you. One warning is that you will not "do research" in say 20 minutes. This type of education takes large blocks of contiguous time to think and build and do it again. We often employ the old Engineering Motto: Design-Build-Test and then add "again, and again, and again."	Here's a school team that started as three girls and two advisors from the beginning. [Note that the kangaroo, "Shrodigger", was not an advisor.] The other teacher could not attend the Tournament.
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WHAT'S A YPT?		These two teams were from the same school, had different advisors all year, couldn't talk to each other all year, and were fascinated what each team did independently... after they got to the Tournament. This school uses the research class model. Who do you think made the final team from this bunch?
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