News item – Teamwork boosts CSS in Physics Olympics

Competing last month against 62 schools in six different events at the University of British Columbia annual Physics Olympics, a Cowichan secondary school Physics team placed second and third in two events. Overall, the team of Kainan Duggan, Nick Hylkema, Rhodry Klughammer, Scott Motherwell and Pei Qi Xi placed sixth.

The events at the 33rd competition organized by UBC’s department of astronomy and physics involved building different devices, solving complex problems and doing experiments, explained CSS Physics teacher Stu Hillyard who took the students to the event. Each of the six events was run in six heats of one hour with a break for lunch

“The students worked hard to prepare for the day and worked very well together during the event,” sponsor teacher Hillyard said.

And speed and teamwork were crucial in the team’s achievement of second place in the Fermi Question event. No calculators, computers, books or notes were allowed as teams worked swiftly to bring commonsense, understanding and knowledge of constants of nature and physical parameters to make complex calculations within a limited time.

The Fermi Question is named for 20th century Enrico Fermi, famous for being able to estimate anything to within a factor of ten.

The team also placed third in the Jeopardy event.