Japan has Joined the IPhO

Japan has Joined the IPhO
Shuji Hasegawa*†, Masatoshi Namiki*‡, and Kazuo Kitahara*§*The Japan Committee of the Physics Olympiad† Associate Professor

Shuji Hasegawa

Masatoshi Namiki

Kazuo Kitahara

Department of Physics, School of Science
University of Tokyo
7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku
Tokyo 113-0033, Japan
E-mail: shuji@surface.phys.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp‡ Professor (Dean)
Faculty of Human Science
Takachiho University
2-19-1 Omiya, Suginami
Tokyo 168-8508, Japan
E-mail: namiki@takachiho.ac.jp§ Professor
Division of Natural Sciences
International Christian University
3-10-2 Osawa, Mitaka
Tokyo 181-8585, Japan
E-mail: kazuo@icu.ac.jp

the decision about IPhO. At the annual
meeting of JPS in the spring of 2004 thepresident of the Korean Physical Society(KPS), Professor Chung Nam Hwang, gave
a plenary talk. He introduced the activitiesof KPS including their preparation for theIPhO 2004 being held that summer in Pohang, Korea. He appealed to the Japanesecommunity to send some people to theIPhO. Our committee decided to send fourmembers as observers to the IPhO 2004 inPohang in July. The four members weredeeply impressed and inspired by the hugeorganization of the IPhO and the highlevel examinations, which triggered us toaccelerate our preparation process toward
1. INTRODUCTION
Based on a long-term discussion about the participating in IPhO.
possibility of Japan participating in IPhO,
At last, these three physics societies inThe Physical Society of Japan (JPS) createda small preparatory committee in 2002. Later Japan agreed in 2004 to hold a domestic
on, The Physics Education Society of Japan competition, “Physics Challenge”, forand The Japan Society of Applied Physics high-school students in the summer ofjoined the committee. The discussions con- 2005 as one of the domestic events for thetinued for nearly two years, without reaching World Year of Physics. It would also serve
as a preliminary screening of competitors
a decision about participation.
for the IPhO 2006. We began the preparaIt was Korea that pushed us to make tion by creating an organizing committee
The International Physics Olympiad(IPhO) 2006 in Singapore was a momentous occasion for Japan, because
it was the first time we sent high-school
students to compete in IPhO and learn
the international top-level high-schoolphysics. We had spent more than five
years discussing and preparing fortheir participation in IPhO. This article
describes the path we followed to theSingapore competition, and also thegreat impact that the IPhO has madein Japan.

consisting of about twenty volunteers fromuniversities and high schools. The committee had academic support from the threesocieties and financial support from theJapan Science and Technology Agency andthe governor of Okayama. Thus, we wereon our way to Singapore.

2. PHYSICS CHALLENGE 2005

We had about 200 applicants from high(and junior-high) schools all over Japanfor the preliminary stage of our domesticcompetition, “Physics Challenge”, in 2005
[Fig. 1]. The applicants had to submit reports on a theoretical and an experimental
project they had completed. The theme ofexperimental project was to measure the acceleration due to gravity
using a homemade pendulum to test original ideas. One
student tried to measure a difference of-values between the ebb and flow of the sea.
Another examined the systematic change of-values as a function of the swing angle ofpendulum. Others tried to detect a difference in -values between ground level andthe rooftop of his fifteen-floor apartment
house. The committee members enjoyed

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International Physics Olympiads

first day, we had an opening ceremony andwelcome shows with music and dancing.
We imitated the style of IPhO as much aspossible. We had a five-hour theoreticalcompetition on the second day [Fig. 2]
and a five-hour experimental competitionon the third day [Fig. 3]. (Unlike the IPhO,
we did not need to discuss the examination
problems!) After the examinations, the students enjoyed activities: making ceramicarts and visiting SPring-8, a synchrotron
radiation facility, and so on. One of theimportant activities besides the actual
competitions at the Physics Challenge was“Physics Live”, in which the committee
members brought their own instruments
Fig. 1: Poster of “Physics Challenge 2005”. to demonstrate to the students variousexperiments and observations. Demonstrations included the use of magnets, a simple
microscope, huge balloons, a PC, and sotheir reports very much and were already on. The students enjoyed the demonstraconvinced of the success of the Physics tions very much and as well as discussing
Challenge at this stage.
physics with the committee members. This
was a good opportunity for the high-school
Based on their excellent reports, we se- students to talk to university professors.
lected 100 students for the second stage of
the Physics Challenge, and gathered in theThe theoretical problems in our Physics
city of Okayama, west of Osaka, in August Challenge 2005 were about relativity, dif2005. The students, as well as the commit- fusion, and photons, all of which were contee members, stayed there for four days for nected with Einstein. Although they werethe competition. In the afternoon of the beyond the scope of high-school physics

Fig. 2: Theoretical Competition at “Physics Challenge 2005”.

in Japan, we designed all the questions
so that almost no prior knowledge about
them was required (although knowledgeof differential equations and integrals wasassumed). This was quite different fromthe entrance examinations of universities inJapan. In fact, its novelty was highlighted
by the surprising fact that a junior-highschool student earned the top score in thetheoretical examination.
The theme of the experimental examination was to measure Planck’s constant byusing the wave-particle duality of light.
First, the students measured the wavelengths of light emitted from red-, green-,
and blue-light-emitting diodes (LEDs)
using a simple grating spectrometer. Next,
they measured the threshold voltages required to light the respective LEDs, whichcorrespond to the photon energies of therespective colors. By plotting the photon
energy as a function of the inverse of thewavelength (or frequency) for each color
on a graph, one can deduce the value ofPlanck’s constant from the gradient of thefitted straight line. Although the method
was different, the final goal to obtain thevalue of Planck’s constant was unintentionally the same as that of the experimental examination at the 2005 IPhO in Salamanca,
Spain held one month earlier.
The experimental competition was anovel experience not only for the students,
but also for the committee members. We
had never conducted an experimental competition in Japan in such a way that each
student was required to do the measurements by himself/herself with individual
experimental apparatus and without consulting a teacher. However, the students
enjoyed it very much; nobody withdrew
from the examination. Since we guessedthat only a few students had experience
with doing experiments in high schoolclasses, our experimental examination wasmuch easier than in IPhO; we did not ask
for error analysis of measured data, and wedescribed the experimental method in detailon the question sheets.
The committee members spent all night

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Japan has Jointed the IPhO

one of the most important features of theIPhO and a decisive difference from theentrance examination of universities.
The final selection for the contestants for
the IPhO 2006 occurred at the end of March
2006, during a four-day training camp. The
10 candidates (two had already withdrawn
before the camp) studied hard and took
theoretical and experimental examinations
from nine o’clock in the morning until nineo’clock at night every day during the camp.
In the theoretical seminars, each candidate
presented his answers to theoretical problems on the black board in front of theother participants and had to answer manyquestions from the committee members[Fig. 4]. The committee members weresurprised and impressed that most of theFig. 3: Experimental Competition at “Physics Challenge 2005”.
candidates answered the oral examinations
as well as university students. Based on thecombined scores of these examinations andthe experimental tests, as well as the scoresscoring the answer sheets in time for the inversely, we believe that creating such a at Physics Challenge 2005, we selected theclosing ceremony held the next morning network increases the recognition of IPhO five best students to compete in the IPhO
(we did not need the moderation process, in the community and positively affects 2006 in Singapore.
of course!). We chose 6 Gold Medalists, physics education in high schools. Actu12 Silver Medalists, 12 Bronze Medalists, ally few people in Japan knew that IPhO 4. THE IPhO 2006 IN SINGAPORE
and 20 Honorable Mentions according to includes an experimental examination. The At last, five Japanese high-school students
the combined scores of the theoretical and experimental competition is, we believe, were on the stage at the opening ceremony
experimental examinations. From the 30
medalists, we chose 12 students younger
than the second year in high school ascandidates of the delegate contestants inthe IPhO 2006.

3. TRAINING FOR CANDIDATESTUDENTS

We started special training for the 12
candidates from September 2005. The
students were asked to solve many theoretical problems and submit the answer sheetsby mail every month. Students practiced
experiments at their own high schools
or at universities near their homes. Since
this was our first experience preparing for
IPhO, we did not have sufficient networks
to support this training, especially for theexperimental aspect. Only a few candidates
went to nearby universities to meet withphysics professors for training. We have Fig. 4: Seminar on theory at the final selection camp. Each student presented his answer on thelearned that a country-wide network for black board, and answered oral questions from the committee members.
preparing the candidates is essential. And,AAPPS Bulletin June 2007, Vol. 17, No. 325

International Physics Olympiadsof the IPhO 2006 held in the auditorium
at Nanyang Technological University inSingapore [Fig. 5]. That was a poignant
moment for all of the leaders and observersof Japanese team, especially recalling thelong path to Singapore, which turned out
to be a five-year journey!
Since it was the first IPhO not only forthe students, but also for our team leadersand observers, everything was new for
us indeed: discussing and translating theexamination problems, moderation, excursions, the mid-term and farewell parties toname a few. Japanese leaders and observers
were surprised at first by the very active discussions about the examination problems
just after the opening ceremony. In spiteof the excellent original form of questions
prepared by the Singapore committee, thequestions were modified significantly as aresult of the discussion by the leaders fromall participating countries. We knew thatthe IPhO was run democratically, but asa result, the discussions took a very longtime. It took more than 10 hours to discussand correct the theoretical problems, fromone o’clock in the afternoon to almost
midnight. Therefore, after the final versionof the problems was approved, we had towork all night to translate the problems
from English into Japanese. The Japanteam finished the translation at six o’clockthe next morning, just two hours before
the start of examination! The Japan team
had five observers to assist the two leaders.
All of them worked really hard all night
without a break, but it took six hours. Thiswas because we chose words very carefullyin the translation to avoid any possible
misunderstanding by the students during
the examination.

ent this theme as a ‘Gedanken experiment’,
but we seldom perform an actual experiment in high school classes. The uniquefeature of the examination was the formatof the question. The instructions for theexperiment did not tell the contestants how
to set up the experimental apparatus; thecontestants had to determine the proper arrangement of the apparatus by themselves.
The Japanese students were at a loss andwasted much time taking unproductive
measurements. The typical physics experiments in Japanese high schools and evenin undergraduate schools of universities
require that the students have only toassemble the experimental tools and do
the measurements according to the given
directions; they do not need to design theexperiment. The experience at this IPhO
may be a good trigger to reconsider thestyle of education in Japan.

Another feature that was quite new for
us was that the theoretical examination did
not include classical mechanics. The problems were about a neutron interferometer,special relativity, optics, thermodynamics,and electromagnetism. This was shocking
to us because in Japan we believe that classical mechanics is the most important topic
in high school physics. We felt that thisThe leaders and observers of our teamcomposition of the theoretical questions
conveyed a message about the policy of slept well in the hotel during the competitions while the students struggled with thephysics education in Singapore.
problems, because we had worked all nightThe experimental examination was also on the translations. No one had the energy
very interesting. The theme was to measure to participate in the excursions for leadersinterference and diffraction of microwaves. and observers. Surprisingly, we received
Typically, our high-school text books pres- our students’ answer sheets at midnight on
the competition days. We began to scorethem immediately since the leaders andobservers had already reversed day andnight to work on the translations.

The Japan team (as well as other Asianparticipants) was excited to meet Professor Masatoshi Koshiba, Nobel laureate ofPhysics in 2002, as a special guest at themid-term party held in the evening after theexperimental competition. That was a quite
big party with all the participants gathering
to cerebrate the successful competitions.
The students looked very relieved since
they had finished all the exams. Since ourleaders and observers drank a lot of wine
there, we didn’t start to score the answer
sheets of the experimental examination
until after two o’clock at that night.
Moderation was also a new experienceFig. 5: The contestants of the Japan team at the opening ceremony of the IPhO 2006 in Singafor us. The final score of each contestantpore.

was determined by a discussion between

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Japan has Jointed the IPhO

the leaders of each country and members of
the Singapore scoring committee. Since theleaders and the committee members scoredthe answer sheets independently, naturally
enough there were some differences in thescores. We discussed the differences andadjusted the score of each student with (orwithout) mutual agreement (the Singapore
committee had the final say). We prepared
for the moderation all the night before anddeveloped some strategies to get the highest
scores. The results of the moderation were,
however, quite reasonable; we recognizedthat the scoring committee was quite fairand very careful about the detailed scoring
scheme, even though they did not understandthe Japanese written on the answer sheets.
We imagined how tough it is to score fairly
answer sheets written in foreign languages.
At the closing ceremony, the students
were seated in the auditorium in the orderof their scores, so they already guessed thecolor of their medals before the ceremony.
However, we were deeply moved watching
our students receive their awards on thestage. Although no Japanese student earned
a Gold medal, all the students received Silver/Bronze medals or Honorable Mention[Fig. 6]. We believe that this was a really the meeting with the Prime Minister, one
successful result for our first IPhO. We re- of our contestants in the IPhO showed theally applauded our five students.
Prime Minister one of the experimental
tools and explained the competition. Our5. CONCLUDING REMARKS Prime Minister replied, “I do not under– THE IMPACT OF THE IPhO stand physics at all! But it was quite good
The results of International Science to hear that all of you had valuable experiOlympiads, not only the IPhO but also the ences in an international environment. I
Math, Biology, Chemistry, and Information expect you to make use of such experiences
Olympiads held in the summer of 2006, in your daily studies and in finding yourwere covered widely by newspapers and way in the future.”magazines in Japan. The reports wereexceptionally prominent in 2006, because, Under the support of Ministry of Educawe believe, Japan sent a Physics team for tion, Science and Culture, the Japan Comthe first time. The Ministry of Education, mittee of Science Olympiads (JCSO) was
Science and Culture decided to support created in the beginning of 2007, chaired
systematically the activity for the Inter- by Professor Leo Esaki, Nobel laureate ofnational Science Olympiads, and began to Physics in 1973. The Japan Committee ofdiscuss how to attract more high-school the Physics Olympiad is now a sub-comstudents to the preliminary screening. They mittee under JCSO. We believe these big
set several thousand as a target number of changes occurred in 2006-2007 due to ourapplicants for future Physics Challenges, participation in the IPhO 2006. The posiwhich was one order of magnitude larger tive effect, however, has not yet reachedthan that in 2005!
each high school and each student sufficiently; actually, the number of applicants
At the end of August 2006 our Prime for the Physics Challenge in 2006 and 2007
Minister, Mr. Jun-ichiro Koizumi, invited remained as few as 300-400, far below theall the medalists from the International Sci- target number set by the Ministry. But weence Olympiads to his official residence. At are realizing that more people are interested
in and understand the importance of IPhO.
This is partly because of a recent tendency
in Japan that fewer high-school students
are interested in science. Many teachersand professors, as well as the government,worry seriously about this situation. TheInternational Science Olympiads, including
IPhO, should help change this trend. To alleviate this problem, we have to go abroad
and learn the global standard of physics
education. The IPhO provides us a great
opportunity to do that. It can encourage us
to reconsider and restructure the physics
education system in Japan. The IPhO not
only encourages the elite students, but,
more importantly, expands the horizons ofeveryone interested in science.

Fig. 6: The Japan team after the closing ceremony of the IPhO 2006 in Singapore. One SilverMedal, three Bronze Medals, and one Honorable Mention.

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