St John’s College learner Jordyn Henning and physical science teacher Dr Alistair Douglas represented St John’s College as members of the first South African team to participate in the International Young Physicists Tournament (IYPT) in Cape Town from 7 to 12 July.
Jordyn and Douglas joined Jana Grobbelaar, Juhi Sewchurran and teacher Don Duffield of Parklands College at the event.
The IYPT is the world’s premier competition for high school physics learners.
South Africa participated in the tournament alongside 35 other countries. Teams had to solve 17 open-ended physics problems over the course of a year and present their findings in the form of a Physics Fight (PF), where teams alternate in roles of reporter, opponent and reviewer. The competition is of an extremely high standard and requires significant experimental and theoretical work in order to excel.
South Africa participated as a guest team against North Macedonia. The team acquitted themselves very well with Jordyn and his teammates achieving high praise and constructive comments from an international jury of physics experts and teachers. Douglas served as a jury member for five PFs and judged the Singapore, Ukraine and Canadian teams.
The overall winners of the competition were Singapore for the sixth consecutive year.
Head of marketing at St John’s College Jacqui Deeks said, “It was a great privilege for St John’s College to be part of this exciting competition, and Jordyn, along with his teammates from Parklands College and some new teammates from two schools, will attend the 2020 IYPT in Romania where they are sure to make us proud once again.”
Related articles:
St John’s College honours old boy Owen Nkumane by naming terraces after him
St George flag lowered, flag of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa raised at St John’s College
