A four-person team from Darlington School placed first in the 36th Annual Alabama High School Physics Contest last weekend, sponsored by the University of Alabama.
“Going to the University of Alabama for this contest always generates great interest for Darlington’s physicists,” said Donald Sweeney, physics teacher. “The first part of the contest was an individual examination that included 32 challenging AP Physics questions – you really have to be an expert at remembering formulas to do well in this portion.”
Approximately 350 high school students from Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi and Tennessee took the individual exam, which lasted 75 minutes. Darlington’s contestants included Jesse Baker, Gun Chanatrutipan, Andrew Safigan and Du Zhang.
After a short recess, the Team (Ciphering) Contest was set up for the 71 participating teams. In this portion of the contest, one team member sits in the ‘hot seat’ and answers four questions during a specified amount of time. If the question is answered correctly in less than 40 seconds, the student scores a 5; in less than 80 seconds, he or she scores a 3; in less than 120 seconds, he or she scores 1. Points are not awarded if it takes the contestant longer than 120 seconds to respond.
“Darlington got off to a great start when Andrew, Du and Jesse each answered all four of their questions correctly,” Sweeney said. “By this time, we had accumulated 58 points and there was one team ahead of us with 60. This was heart-stopping stuff! Last to take the ‘hot seat’ was Gun, and he also answered all four questions correctly. At the end of the round, Darlington had 78 points and the next best team had 73. The thrill was as exciting as if the home country had won the World Cup in soccer!”
After lunch and a series of demonstrations in Gallalee Hall’s domed observatory on the University of Alabama campus, the students made their way to the awards ceremony where the Top 10 individual winners were announced. Darlington racked up the honors as Safigan earned sixth place, Chanatrutipan earned third place and Baker earned first place.
“This was an unbelievable result for Darlington’s team and a new record in that it was Jesse’s second consecutive year to achieve first place in the individual contest,” Sweeney said. “I was very proud and could not have asked for a better group of students.”
The High School Physics Contest is open to all high schools, attracting schools from surrounding states as well as many from Alabama. The event consists not only of physics competitions, but also of a program for teachers, an open house on research in physics, a physics show, and informal opportunities to experience campus life at The University of Alabama.
The top two finishers in the written exam who choose to attend the University of Alabama receive four-year, in-state tuition scholarships. Books, trophies, plaques and medals are awarded to the top individual and team finishers. Students who do well in the competition are invited to apply to the E. Scott Barr scholarship program, which awards generous scholarships to students majoring in physics.
