Pegasus students won the second prize from the S.- T. Yau High School Sciences Competition（Physics）Here is the exclusive interview!
Release Time：2020-12-17 15:09
On Dec.12-13,2020 the finals were held at Tsinghua University. Ninety-two teams from China, the United States, Singapore, India and other countries competed for sixty-one medals. After a series of contests, Benson Zhu, our 11th grader, won the second prize in the domestic competition area (Physics) !
A Brief Introduction to the Competition
Known as the Youth Nobel Prize, the S.- T. Yau High School Sciences Award covers six disciplines: mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, computer science and economic and financial modeling. This year, more than 1,500 teams and nearly 1700 students from more than 400 secondary schools in 26 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions in mainland China, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan and 17 countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom and India signed up for the competition and submitted more than 900 valid papers. Through preliminary screening, letter evaluation, table evaluation and other procedures, a total of 252 teams from 13 mainland regions, Asia and the United States were selected for the semifinal. After the semifinal, 72 student teams from the mainland, 9 teams from the Asian division and 11 teams from the United States division stood out from more than 1,570 teams and won the "tickets" to participate in the finals, accounting for less than 6% of the total participating teams.
After the competition, Pegasus had an exclusive interview with Benson. Here are the highlights of the interview.
A variety of hobbies such as playing the piano, photography and Focusing on the social issues related to stray animals
Hello, everyone. I'm Benson in Grade 11 at Pegasus California School. Speaking of my hobbies, I usually spend more time on photography and playing the piano after school. In terms of photography, when I attended photography classes on Saturdays and Sundays, I would also record what I felt good on campus. I used to shoot shooting stars and campus night scenes together with my classmates.
My classmate Jackson and I started the club in April this year, hoping to draw attention to the common social problem of stray animals and contribute as much as we can. At present, we have established a cooperative relationship with a local shelter for stray dogs. We organize some charity activities every month, such as charity sale and charity performance, and then donate all the donations and materials we receive to them so as to help them improve the environment as much as possible and relieve their pressure.
S.- T. Yau High School Sciences Award Can’t be won without the help of my family and the school
Taking part in S.- T. Yau High School Sciences Award was a very important process in my growth and career of scientific exploration because I am interested in physics and also plans to apply for Physics and Mechanics as majors in college. The competition has a high gold content and reputation in the world. The experience can be helpful for the future college application, so I decided to take part in the S.- T. Yau High School Sciences(Physics) .
From as early as in September when we knew there was a competition to the final oral defense in November, the time was very tight. We had a week to design the research topic and decide what we should do from many topics. The next half month was for the research and paper writing. During this period, my father, as my guidance teacher, provided me with a lot of support and help.
Since our research topic was about the experiment of ornithopter, we made an experimental model in the laboratory of the university. I was responsible for the parameters, data analysis and paper writing of the whole project. Finally, the instructor would help me find the academic errors in the paper and help me correct them.
In the middle of September, we submitted the paper, and two weeks later, we received the notice from the organizing committee that we were selected for the final. The next step was the on-site oral defense. I needed to improve the PPT and consolidate the professional knowledge involved in the paper because when the judges asked questions, I couldn't make any mistakes.
Winning the award on the one hand is due to the support of my family; on the other hand the school is also helpful for me. I came to Pegasus a long time ago. The Physics teacher class inspired my interest in physics fully and also the training for me in this respect made me decided to apply for Physics major.
The biggest contribution of the school to this competition is thesis writing and oral defense because Pegasus teachers teach in English all day, including in the English environment. I have been greatly improved in writing in English, including this kind of on-spot oral defense as well as making a speech.
Specifically speaking ,in terms of writing, I am now able to write with more specialized vocabulary, including some logical structure and organization which is much better than before. In addition, there is another obvious improvement in this oral defense. My oral expression is much more fluent than before, which is also attributed to the all-day English teaching and environment in our school.
Suggestions for younger schoolmates
One of the main purpose of Taking part in S.- T. Yau High School Sciences Award is not only to make the college admissions officer see your standardized test scores but also noticed that you and the other children in other ways are not the same, that is to say, if they have the same standardized test scores, they do not take part in as many competitions or some social activities as you, the extracurricular activity is sure to help add extra scores for you. Second, participating in this kind of personalized competition can also let college admissions officer realize that you have the ability to win, which is also very important. So I suggest my younger schoolmates participating in some events like this to practice.
