USAYPT stands for the United States Association for Young Physicists Tournaments, Inc.

Our goal is "Better teaching and learning by doing research in your high school."

We believe that high school teachers can lead their students in doing meaningful "research" that is below the Intel
Science Talent Search (where the students usually get shipped off to local universities) but far above the average
classroom demonstration. Both the teacher who leads this research and the students who participate will become
better teachers and better students. The keys to this are "good" problems that stretch us beyond our present textbook
and a "good" competition where we can share what we learned about Mother Nature's secrets and obtain meaningful
criticism of our work. This is how physics is done and it can be done by you.

We found both the "good" problems and the "good" competition at the International Young Physicists Tournament.
In the Fall of 2003, the physics teachers at three schools (Don Franklin, St. John's Country Day School, Orange Park, FL;
Tengiz Bibilashvili, Wildwood School, Los Angeles, CA; and Bruce Oldaker, Rye Country Day School, Rye, NY)
decided to form a competitively-selected team of high school students to represent the US at the IYPT2004 in Brisbane,
Australia, June 2004. In Feb 2004 we selected our team at Don's school in Florida. In May 2004 we provided initial
training at Bruce's school in New York. In June 2004 we provided final training at Tengiz's school in California on
our way to Australia. We finished 16th, learned a lot, and had much Fyziks Phuyn down under.

On the way home, we decided to form a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organization to promote the IYPT methodologies of
doing research with high school students in their high schools and supervise the US participation in the IYPT. We were
incorporated in the State of New York in March 2005 and received our IRS determination in March 2006. Mark Ossenheimer,
then Principal of the Wildwood School, was our first President from March 2005 through December 2005. Hugh Haskell,
former physics teacher at the North Carolina School for Science and Mathematics, was our second President from
December 2005 through April 2008. Don Franklin left the high school teaching ranks and the USAYPT in September
2007. Tengiz Bibilashvili became our President in May 2008. We selected and trained three more international teams
and represented the US at IYPT2005 in Winterthur, Switzerland (finishing 3rd and making the Finals for the first time
in history), IYPT2006 in Bratislava, Slovakia (finishing 7th), and IYPT2007 in Seoul, Korea (finishing 4th). We learned
a lot every year.

In 2007 we started a Young Physicists Tournament for US high schools, where we adapted the good things we had learned
from our IYPT experiences into "what will work in US high schools". The first US Champion was the Woodberry Forest
School from Virginia. In 2008, we continued this new "US" YPT and invited foreign teams to participate. Our old friends
from Australia at the Brisbane Girls Grammar School, not only came and participated, but they won the tournament and became
our second champions.

In May 2008, the USAYPT decided to stop selecting an International Team to represent the US at the IYPT. The Board of
Directors completed a detailed organizational assessment of our desired ends, our possible ways of achieving those ends,
and the means and products to drive the "ways" that achieve the "ends". The Board concluded that the "US" Young Physicists
Tournament that we developed in 2007 and expanded in 2008 provides the best match of "ends/ways/means" for this unique
educational experience in the US.

Here is who we are:

May 2008
USAYPT organizational assessment:

1.  Ends/Goals?  The USAYPT seeks to develop a unique niche in the "extra-curricular" math/science/engineering market
of high schools in the USA.  We teach teachers how to do research in their high school as contrasted with similar programs
in the US that transport the students to the local university or research center and leave out the local teacher.

            USAYPT goal: "Better Teaching and Learning by Doing Research in Your High School"

2.  Ways?  The USAYPT seeks to achieve this goal using two interlocked processes:

            USAYPT Members are teachers who supervise research groups in their high school investigating the problems
selected by the USAYPT.

            The USAYPT Board of Directors selects physical science problems that exercise all phases of the research
process and are closely tied to the performance rubrics used at the end of year tournament.

3.  Means/Products?  USAYPT provides three primary "means"/products to drive the "ways" that achieve the "ends":

            The USAYPT is a national not-for-profit organization providing supervision of problem selection, beginning teacher
support, professional standards for supervising a research group, and ethical standards.

            The USAYPT organizes and operates a national Young Physicists Tournament providing a surrogate for the
peer-review process and a culminating event/celebration for our teacher-students research year.

            The USAYPT provides national publicity and recognition for the member teachers' and students' efforts.