In this blog post, I will talk about how the challenges and collaborative experiences I had during the preparation for KYPT have changed my research and teamwork skills.
KYPT is a competition in which five people form a team to conduct prior research on 14 physics topics, design experiments, and create presentation materials to discuss each topic with other teams in English. The competition is an important opportunity for high school students to learn the joy of scientific research and the importance of cooperation, and many students participate every year. The competition is held in early February, and the students who win gold medals at the KYPT will team up again to compete in the IYPT International Competition. The IYPT is an opportunity for outstanding students from around the world to compete in a contest of physics knowledge, and it is a very honorable challenge in itself.
In the second semester of my freshman year of high school, I teamed up with two of my high school classmates, my older brother and my older sister, to enter the KYPT. We formed the team in September 20@@, but we were all too busy during the school year, so we started preparing for the competition in earnest during the winter break. Considering that the competition organizers were going to release 14 problems around September, we started late compared to other teams. So, we decided to each take on two or three problems to speed up our research.
However, this individual play backfired. Thinking alone narrowed the scope of our thinking and created a situation where we gave up easily. Fortunately, our team quickly realized the problem and solved it one problem at a time. This way of conducting research allowed us to thoroughly examine previous research and perform the experiments that required many people. It also helped us think together about the counterarguments of the opposing team when we later went to the competition and made it easier to come up with appropriate rebuttals.
The most memorable topic was the third question, titled “Car.” This question was about increasing the efficiency of a car propelled by the wind escaping from a balloon. When I was working on this problem alone, I couldn’t come up with an answer. There were many factors to consider, and it took a lot of work to build the car and conduct the experiments. However, I was able to study and model the ejection of air molecules in thermodynamics and rocket motion in dynamics. When conducting experiments, I used a model on an air track to control the control variables, such as friction, rather than building the car myself. Also, since the experiment used balloons, it was a difficult experiment that required water displacement to measure the volume of the balloon, measuring the pressure of the balloon, and filming the movement of the car model. However, the five of us were able to pull out enough data. Whenever these efforts in various areas bore fruit, all the team members felt a great sense of accomplishment. In particular, they deeply realized the importance of teamwork as they did their best in their respective roles and cooperated with each other.
Of course, we faced other challenges in addition to the research. I was unable to attend the Korea Physics Olympiad Winter School for about a week in January, so I was unable to conduct the experiment. And the Daewon Foreign Language High School students had to prepare for the entrance exam the following semester, so they had a lot of SAT prep to do and were unable to attend the experiment. With the team members unable to continue their research in such a short preparation period, progress was slow. Moreover, the science and engineering experience program for first-year students at high schools to go to the United States coincided with the competition period, which caused our team members to have serious concerns. At the time, the research results were still far from enough, and we thought that it would be better to go to the United States to learn a lot and make good memories with our friends rather than not achieve good results in the competition. I was very upset when my friends, who were usually diligent and did their work silently, were about to give up on the competition. I had never worked on a project with a team like this in my life, so I didn’t know how to deal with this problem. Moreover, I felt even more sorry when the friends who were more dedicated to the team wanted to quit. But in this situation, I sincerely persuaded my friends. I thought that I had wasted two months doing nothing and the time I had invested was a waste, and that I would not be able to build a good relationship with the Daewon High School students. Whether my sincerity was conveyed well or not, my teammates resolved their conflicts well and decided to work even harder for the remaining two weeks. These two weeks were the hardest two weeks of my life. Even though it was a vacation, I asked the teachers on duty to let me do experiments in the school laboratory, and at night we gathered at a cafe to make presentation materials and practice giving presentations in English until dawn. As a result of these efforts, our team won the silver medal at the competition. I still keep in touch with my older and younger siblings who went to study in the United States.
The period of preparing for KYPT was physically demanding, but it also improved my research skills and I felt a great sense of accomplishment in achieving something with such passion in my life. Most importantly, I learned to resolve conflicts of opinion among team members and realized the power of team research. In particular, close cooperation with team members was an important experience that will be of great help later in college and in society. I am grateful that I had this experience in high school, and I think it will be of great help to me when I do collaborative research as a medical scientist in the future. This experience, in which I personally experienced what amazing results can be achieved when cooperation, perseverance, and passion come together, will be a valuable asset in my future life.
What I learned at this competition had a great impact on my growth in various aspects, including not only physical knowledge but also problem-solving ability, creative thinking, and communication skills. I want to continue to grow based on this experience.
