Lexington High Students Advance to Semifinals Physics Team Selection

Lexington High students Ben Bartlett and Qingyang Hu advanced to the semifinal round of the U.S. Physics Team selection.

They scored among the top 300 scores on the first test in the competition. About 3,000 students across the United States participated in the first round.

Bartlett and Hu will take a second exam to determine if they'll be members of the 20-person U.S. Physics Team. In May these students will travel from schools all over the United States, to the University of Maryland-College Park for the U.S. Physics Team Training Camp, where they will go through nine days of intense studying, mystery lab, daily exams, and problem solving.

At the end of that training camp, five students and an alternate will be selected as the "Traveling Team" to represent the United States at the International Physics Olympiad. In July, the Traveling Team and their coaches will attend a three-day Mini Camp of intense laboratory work before moving on to the international competition.

The American Association of Physics Teachers began the Physics Olympiad program in 1986 to promote and demonstrate academic excellence as well as to enhance opportunities for professional development, communication and student enrichment.