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Each year, AAPT and the American Institute of Physics (AIP) sponsor a competition for high school students to represent the United States at the 2014 International Physics Olympiad Competition. The mission of the U.S. Physics Team Program is to promote and demonstrate academic excellence through preparation for and participation in the International Physics Olympiad.

News

7/21/2014

2014 U.S. Physics Team Scores Five Medals in Astana, Kazakhstan

The top U.S. physics students scored three gold medals and two silver medals at the 45th International Physics Olympiad (IPHO), held this year from July 13 - 21 in Astana, Kazakhstan where the best high school physics students from 86 countries competed.

7/15/2014

The U.S. Physics Team representatives are in Astana, Kazakhstan.  Follow the team as photo are added to the 2014 U.S. Physics Team album.

6/6/2014

2014 U.S. Physics Team travelers announced for 45th International Physics Olympiad.

5/21/2014

2014 US Physics Team Announced

Nineteen students from across the U.S. have emerged through a rigorous exam process that began last January with approximately 4,277 students who participated in the Fnet=ma exam to become the 2014 U.S. Physics Team.

5/14/14

2014 Semi-finalists Medal Ranking list.  Semi-final solutions.

3/11/14

Click here for Semi-finalists questionnaire.  Semi-finalists must complete this questionnaire by March 28th to be considered for the US Physics Team.

3/5/14

F=ma exam answers

Teachers have been sent an email with a link to check their students scores.

2/27/14

Semi-finalists have been selected!

The cutoff for this year's F=ma exam was originally set to be 12.5

Unfortunately there was a problem with the scoring key, and the wrong answer for Question 19 was used to score the Webassign student results.  The fault was in the information provided to Webassign.  Though the problem has been identified, re-scoring the exams has turned out to be a complicated process, and it is not easy to determine which students answered Q19 correctly.  We do not know how long it will take to resolve the scoring problem.

In order to move forward, we have decided on the following policy:

Scantron scores have been correctly recorded.  Scores of 12.5 and above will be invited to sit the USAPhO exam.

Only some Webassign scores were incorrectly computed.  It is not possible to determine which scores were incorrectly recorded at this time.  As such, the Webassign cutoff will be 11.25 as computed prior to February 24, 2014.

The official list of these semi-finalists is posted below.  The official solutions will also be made available on the AAPT website.  PLEASE NOTE:  If a semi-finalist was proctored by someone other than their teacher, please email the name of the teacher and school that should be listed with that student to, jlane@aapt.org.

Eventually we hope to have corrected F=ma scores available.  Once that happens, please realize that the cut-off is 12.5; if you received an invitation to sit the USAPhO based on an "incorrect" Webassign score of 11.25 or above, you are still allowed to sit the USAPhO and you will still be recognized as a semi-finalist.  The corrected scores will change your score by no more than 1.25 points, though it could change your score up or down depending on your answer to Q19.

Please direct any questions to Paul Stanley, academic director of the US Physics team, stanleyp@beloit.edu

View the list of Semi-finalists HERE.