All our competitions are running this year. Round 1 papers in November will be emailed out rather than posted.
For practical activities you could look at Saturday Science where you will find many small to large scale activities which students can use to develop investigation skills and “learn about stuff”.
STOP PRESS - Round 1 marking for the UK is finished and the results have been sent to teachers. Final tally: 1768 entries from 297 schools. The BAAO Competition takes place on Saturday 27th February at 9am (GMT) and the Round 2 Competition on Saturday 6th March at 9am (GMT). Invites have been sent out via teachers. These papers will be invigilated over Zoom. Preparation details are on the web pages for the papers. The Senior Physics Challenge Competition (AS) will be a multiple choice paper this year, and will be online. It will accessible on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday 3rd, 4th, 5th March. Entry is via the online shop. The Intermediate Physics Challenge (Y11) will also be a multiple choice paper this year, and will be online. It will be available Thursday and Friday 4th and 5th March, and on Wed, Thurs, Friday 10th, 11th, 12th March. Entry is via the online shop. |
We hold ten competitions organised through two strands:
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BPhO Competitions
- Junior Physics Challenge (Year 10)
- Intermediate Physics Challenge (Year 11)
- Senior Physics Challenge (Year 12)
- Physics Challenge (Year 13)
- BPhO Round 1 (Year 13)
- BPhO Round 2 (Year 13)
- Experimental Project (Year 10/11 & Year 12/13)
BAAO Competitions
- BAAO Junior Astro Challenge (Year 10 & 11)
- Astro Challenge (Year 13)
- BAAO Astrophysics Olympiad (Year 13)
All of these competitions can be entered by students in younger Year groups. About 10% of the entry in Round 1 is from Year 12, for example.
A welcome letter for teachers to introduce the BPhO 2020-21
BPhO yearly info letter 2020-21.pdf
A sheet summarising the competitions and dates is here:
Dates and Summary of Competitions 2020-21.pdf
A timeline for the competition papers is here:
BPhO Papers Flow Chart 2020-21.pdf
We would encourage you to get your student taking part in the Physics Challenge and Astro Challenge Papers. These can be used as a resource of interesting questions or as a school competition. They introduce problems in physics. The Astro Challenge has a few astronomy multiple choice questions to encourage observation and learning about the night sky, but the majority of the questions are accessible to students studying physics and show interesting applications in a specialised area. Details are given in the front page and the constants page below.
Title page.pdf
Constants page.pdf
BPhO Competitions through the Academic Year (in date order)
| Competition | Year group | delivery | Length of “Paper” | Competition Date |
| Physics Challenge | Year 13 or below | paper emailed | 1 hour | Sept - Dec 2020 |
| BAAO Astro Challenge | Year 13 or below | paper emailed | 1 hour | Sept - Dec 2020 |
| British Physics Olympiad (Round 1) | Year 13 or below | paper printed & posted | 2 h 40m + 5m reading time | Fri 13th Nov 2020 |
| BAAO Junior Astro Challenge | Year 10 & Year 11 | online competition | 2 x 25 min | Fri 6th - Wed 25th Nov 2020 |
| BAAO Astrophysics Olympiad | Year 13 or below | paper printed & posted | 3 hour + 15m reading time | Mon 25th Jan 2021 |
| BPhO Round 2 | Year 13 or below | paper printed & posted | 3 hours | Mon 1st Feb 2021 |
| Senior Physics Challenge | Year 12 | paper emailed | 1 hour | Friday 5th March 2021 |
| Intermediate Physics Challenge | Year 11 | paper emailed | 1 hour | Friday 12th March 2021 |
| Junior Physics Challenge | Year 10 | online competition | 2 x 25 min | Fri 30th April - Wed 19th May 2021 |
| Experimental Project | Year 12/13 & Year 10/11 | paper emailed | June - Dec 2021 |