Year Group:Year 11, 12 and 13
Available from: 11th Oct 2023
Submission deadline: 2nd Feb 2024
Length: Open-ended
Sat: Within your school or home
Marked: Best scripts submitted for marking
Cost: Free
Prizes: Certificates
This is for UK schools ONLY. We are unable to mark new international schools. (If you are a school that has participated on previous occasions then please contact us at Contact@BPhO.org.uk.)
The project brief can be downloaded from the Competition Platform. This year it is on the motion of a falling slinky.
Schools must register in advance that they are participating so that we are not swamped with entries. This on the Competition Platform
The Experimental Project was developed to support and encourage practical physics for students in school. A modest but interesting problem is posed, to be investigated using common household and school equipment. The project can be written up in the style of an academic paper, or in a personal style that reflects the students interests. We do not have a set write-up style and many variations are encountered. What must come across is a degree of enthusiasm from the students.
The Experimental Project gives students hands-on experience of how experimental research is carried out - planning and undertaking open-ended experiments and independent research, working in teams, where appropriate, and communicating their findings.
Each school encourages as many students as they would like to produce a project. Some use it as a class or homework activity, others encourage science club or gifted and talented students to take part. The deadline for project submission this year is 2nd February 2024. Within each school teachers judge their students’ efforts. Each school forwards their best project from each judging category (G or A) to the BPhO.
The competition is judged in two categories - Group A, for years 12 to 13 (AS and A2 or equivalent level students) and Group G for students in year 10 or 11 (GCSE or equivalent level). Prizes are awarded to students with outstanding papers, and the best team from each age group will be invited along with their teacher to the BPhO Presentations at the Royal Society in April. The best papers may be published on the BPhO website.
The deadline for registering the Experimental project and also submitting the project is Friday 2nd Feb 2024.
The competition is judged in two categories - Group A for Years 12 and 13 or equivalent, and Group G for students in Years 10 or 11 (GCSE or equivalent level).