From IYPT

Why participate in the IYPT?

The preparation for and the participation in the IYPT have a lot of advantages, from student's and from teacher's perspective. Some of these advantages will be listed here.

The Advantages

  • Team Work: The structure of the tournament and of the preparation requires a high amount of team work. The ability to cooperate in an organized way as well as the ability to organize oneself's own work is one of the most important soft-skills which are required by today's economy.
  • Knowledge: Of course working with the IYPT problems teaches a lot of scientific knowledge. This, however, is done quite differently than in usual science classes. Due to the more project-oriented and practical work the knowledge will be retained much longer. Furthermore one also learns how to apply the new knowledge.
  • Research: Since IYPT problems are formulated in a very open way they offer a perfect way to accomodate oneself with the methods of scientific research. Working on IYPT problems can help in finding a way to deal with completely new questions and tasks.
  • Rhetorical Skills: Rhetorical skills are one of the very important aspects of the IYPT. It is important to present the prepared solutions in a convincing and impressive way. Moreover one needs to be spontaneous to be able to react on the reports of others and to prepare an opponence speech and a discussion within very little time. The IYPT offers a possibilty to train how to sell oneself at best.
  • Language Skills: Since the official language of the IYPT is English (which is a foreign language for most of the participants) it offers also a great opportunity to train language skills. In particular one learns a lot of technical terms and science English, which is usually not the case in regular classes.
  • International Aspect: The IYPT is is an excellent chance to visit another country and to get to know young people from all over the world and possibly to form friendship.

Video

Look how the Swedish leaders and students explain their vision of the IYPT in Jingcheng Zhao's short documentary.