Thinking outside the box with the Senior Physics Challenge

In the cool darkness of a blacked-out teaching room at the Cavendish Laboratory, Gareth Davies and Olivia Skilbeck bend over a helium neon laser and watch as the bright red beam scatters chalk dust in the air.
 
 
They're doing a diffraction experiment showing that light, when it passes through a small opening or round an obstacle, will create predictable patterns of bright and dark fringes. This experiment is part of the second-year physics course for Natural Sciences at Cambridge University. Yet both Gareth (far right) and Olivia (left) are only 17.
 
Sixty three sixth-formers from state and independent schools all over the UK took part in the 2009 Senior Physics Challenge (SPC) sponsored by The Ogden Trust - a programme designed to stretch participants' understanding of physics and give them a taste of university physics.
 
Both Gareth and Olivia say they enjoy being challenged and working well beyond the school curriculum in maths and physics. They come from different educational backgrounds but they're united by their enthusiasm. Gareth goes to King Edward the Sixth Grammar School, a voluntary-aided school in Birmingham. Olivia goes to Wycombe Abbey School, an independent all-girls school in Buckinghamshire.
 
Now in its fourth year, SPC is the brainchild of two theoretical physicists - Professor Mark Warner, a Fellow of Corpus Christi College, and Dr Anson Cheung (centre), a Fellow of Trinity College. Both are passionate about reaching out to the brightest school-leavers regardless of background.
 
"As awareness of the SPC scheme has spread throughout the school system, the number of really strong applications has risen fast. This year we had four applicants for every one place which meant we were able to select students who have the mathematical fluency and passion for their subject we're looking for," says Dr Cheung.  "A current Cambridge student, who came on the SPC programme when he was a pupil at a comprehensive in Kent, was the top undergraduate in physics this year. His school didn't have a strong track record in Cambridge applications and he told us he'd never have applied if he hadn't come on the course, which is extremely encouraging".
 
A demanding timetable of lectures and hands-on activities keeps participants busy from 9 am right through to the evening, when they have dinner at a range of the colleges which provide accommodation. "I've never been to Cambridge before so the dinners are a good way of getting to know the different colleges," says Gareth.
 
"Before I arrived here, Cambridge seemed a bit scary but now we've had a talk about admissions, I understand the process a lot better. The course gives a really helpful insight into what it's like to study physics at a higher level. I've particularly enjoyed the sessions on special relativity and orbital dynamism."
 
This year seven Cambridge Colleges provided meals and accommodation free of charge for SPC students: Corpus Christi, Fitzwilliam, Newnham, Queens, Robinson, St John's and Trinity.
For more details on the Senior Physics Challenge go to http://www-spc.phy.cam.ac.uk/
 
The Senior Physics Challenge has been sponsored by The Ogden Trust since 2006.