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<\/a>\u201cThe finals have been conducted virtually when circumstances make it unsafe for students to travel to the institute,\u201d said Leibner. \u201cIn that case, students submit a video of their safe to the judges, explaining the locking mechanism and the physics principles required to open the safe successfully. The students\u2019 videos are judged on roughly the same criteria and a winner is announced at a virtual Zoom session.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 2024 virtual closing ceremony can be watched at youtube.com\/watch?v=InI8CDoDqDk<\/a>.<\/p>\n Weizmann Institute of Science has hosted various versions of the high school physics tournament since 1973. \u201cIn fact, the winner of the first-ever physics tournament is Dan Gelbart \u2013 a notable Canada-based engineer and inventor. He won the tournament at the age of 16 with an original motor he designed and built himself using spare materials, some even sourced from his mother\u2019s kitchen!\u201d said Leibner.<\/p>\n Gelbart, who was born in Germany and raised in Israel, has lived in Canada since the 1970s. Based in Vancouver, he co-founded Creo, a local printing technology company that was bought by Eastman Kodak Co. in 2005, and he has co-founded several other companies. According to a profile on the Weizmann Institute\u2019s website, Gelbart has registered some 145 patents. He also has volunteered as an adjunct professor at the University of British Columbia and has a YouTube channel \u2013 the most recent video, which was posted a couple of years ago, is a tour of his workshop and its instruments.<\/p>\n Typically, the physics tournament attracts between 200 and 300 participants a year, from Israel, Canada and other countries.<\/p>\n \u201cThe international tournament offers students an incredible opportunity to meet similarly scientific-minded youths from across the world,\u201d said Leibner. \u201cThe tournament also offers a teacher development conference for the physics teachers accompanying teams to the tournament.\u201d<\/p>\n Participants work in teams of three to five students and their local teacher\/mentor \u2013 who is the one who must submit the team\u2019s registration \u2013 coordinates with the tournament\u2019s physics consultant throughout the process. The team\u2019s safe is judged on its quality and complexity; team members\u2019 level of understanding of the physics concepts being employed is key, as are the esthetics and originality of the safe they build.<\/p>\n \u201cLocal mentors are past participants of the physics tournament themselves,\u201d said Leibner. \u201cThey have firsthand knowledge of the competition, what is required to build the safe, and what it is like to compete in the tournament. They have also participated in other educational opportunities at Weizmann Institute in Israel and have experienced living on campus and working with the community of scientists. Our mentors have a deep love and appreciation for science and an understanding that promoting STEM in education is incredibly important.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/a>