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Physics Olympiad 2011: Two in Top 24
Release Date: 25-Oct-2010 | Go Back
Prefects, Katherine Quail and Rachel Woodhouse are both among Australia’s Top 24 Physics students to be invited for a prestigious Physics Olympiad Summer Science School in January 2011.
Both students, who complete Year 12 next year, sat the Physics Olympiad’s National Qualifying Examination in August after attending a 10-week course, comparable to a first year university physics program, at Sydney University. The girls heard about the program from their teacher, Miss Janet Pemberton.Katherine is embracing the invitation and says that the experience of being selected in the Top 24 for an Olympiad is quite amazing.
“The qualifying exam was really difficult and I remember joking with Rachel saying, ‘What if one of us is selected?’” she confesses. “Amazingly, both of us were invited to join the Top 24 at the Summer Science School!”
The next three months for Katherine involves correspondence work that she must complete in the lead up to the two-week Summer Science School at Monash University, Melbourne, in January. From here, she must wait to hear whether she has made the national Top 8 for the Asia Pacific Olympiad in Israel.
“Getting this far is already a major achievement and I’m going to work as hard as I can,” she says. “It’s very exciting and I am looking forward to getting started.”
Fellow student, Rachel, who represented Australia in May this year at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair in California, is about to embark on her sixth (and final) year with the Australian Girls Choir and says she has to evaluate the time commitment required for the Olympiad against commitments she has already made for 2011.
“This is a valuable lesson in making priorities,” she says. “Of course, I wish I could do everything...”
In Australia, the Science Olympiads are coordinated by Australian Science Innovations; see www.asi.edu.au/olympiads/faq.php for more information.
Following the Summer Science School, the top students will have an opportunity to compete at the Asia Pacific Olympiad in Israel and the International Physics Olympiad in Thailand later in 2011.
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Photograph: Roseville College Year 11 Physicists, Katherine Quail (left) and Rachel Woodhouse (right).
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