The Latvian Physics Festival was held on a grand scale and the most knowledgeable young physicists in the country were identified

Loreta Brasava-Muižniece, team captain, 9th grade student: “The key to our victory was to understand the role of each team member, each one’s abilities and strengths, and how we can help each other. The team consisted of four 9th grade students and one member from 8th grade, because we wanted to show him how to achieve big goals. This is our tribute to the future. We are very happy about the upcoming trip to CERN in Switzerland. I think this opportunity will help us get to know each other even more. maybe we would participate in other competitions in the future. We plan to link our future with engineering, mathematics and physics.”

The second place in the competition was won by the team “Ministers of Gambling” from Riga State 1st Gymnasium (city of Riga). On the other hand, “Electromagnetic Elite” from Sigulda State Gymnasium (Riga region) came third. Among the other finalists were Daugavpils Technological High School-lyceum team “Baltais celiņš” (Latgale region), Limbaži State Gymnasium team “Baroni” (Vidzeme region) and Liepāja Jānis Čakste high school team “Jauda” (Kurzeme region).

The teams had to compete in several rounds, solving tasks specially created by leading experts in Latvia. In addition to physics, they had to demonstrate erudition in other natural science subjects, thus showing comprehensive knowledge.

This year, a total of 1,080 students applied for the student erudition competition, which has the status of an open physics Olympiad, and its first round of selection took place in absentia. On the other hand, the 300 most knowledgeable 8th and 9th grade students from all regions of Latvia met on April 13 in the semifinals and finals of the competition, which took place within the Latvian Physics Festival.

Riga residents and guests of the city – visitors to the 4th Latvian Physics Festival – had the opportunity to participate in an entertaining event throughout the day, which was organized by Latvian science and curiosity centers, various technical creativity and interest groups, the largest Latvian universities and other educational institutions, as well as companies. During the physics festival, everyone had the opportunity to learn about the achievements of Latvian science in physics, listen to the opinions of experts on the importance of STEM in the development of society and economy, see exciting experiments and increase knowledge about innovations in the field of future energy. Latvian teachers, on the other hand, created new ideas for exciting teaching of physics in schools in a special master class. At the end of the event, the group “Astro’n’out” entertained the participants of the school erudition competition and the visitors of the physics festival with a concert.