Welcome to the website of New Zealand's Young Scientists' Tournament. Due to the covid-19 pandemic this year's tournament was unable to go ahead. The 2021 NZYST has been arranged for April 2021 at Wellington High School. An alternative online tournament will replace the in-person tournament if NZ's Covid 19 alert level prevents teams gathering in Wellington.

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Follow the links to discover what it means to compete in a Young Scientists' Tournament, experience a Science Fight and learn about the global IYNT competitions that doing well in the NZYST would enable you to become a part of.  

Students competing in New Zealand's Young Scientists' Tournament develop their skills of scientific inquiry, challenging themselves and their team-mates to investigate a range of scientific problems through experiment and research. Real scientific discoveries need to stand up to scrutiny. Discussion and debate with their peers, in front of experts, enables students to learn to communicate, defend and justify their work.

115.6 Auckland Grammar School 1 

110.4 Wellington High School ICP

108.3 Kristin School

105.8 Wellington High School GP

100.7 New Plymouth Girls' High School FC

095.4 Auckland Grammar School 2 

088.3 New Plymouth Girls' High School BZ

080.6 Hutt Valley High School

079.2 St Patrick's College 

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Scores in the final:

40.5 Auckland Grammar School 1 

40.4 Kristin School

39.3 Wellington High School ICP

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More photos can be seen in our gallery. Here is the NZ team announcement.​

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The following people were chosen to represent NZ at the 2019 IYNT:

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Ryan Bright - Wellington High School

Heeseo Kim - Kristin School

Matthew Griffiths - Auckland Grammar 

Ryaan Sidhu – Auckland Gammar

Lydia Acton - Wellington High School

Rhiannon Mackie - HVHS

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The team continued working on gathering data and strengthening their theoretical understanding, with the help of their teachers over the ensuing months. A training camp was held in Auckland in July to develop the skills that the team would need in the competition: reporting, opposing and reviewing.

Supported by a TSSTA grant from the Royal Society of New Zealand, the team travelled to Minsk, Belarus, for the tournament starting on August 18th. 21 teams were there including last year's finalists Bulgaria, Georgia and Switzerland. Our team stayed unbeaten throughout each round with every member of the team making a strong contribution. Tournament rules require that no member of the team may report, oppose or review more than once before the final. In the final Ryan Bright reported his solution to problem 7, Burning Glass: Propose and test various methods to start a fire with a magnifying glass." Heeseo Kim proved to be an excellent opposer. In the final she opposed the Swiss solution to problem 10, Elastic bones: "Chicken bones kept in acidic conditions for a few days become elastic. Perform such an experiment in controlled conditions and investigate what components of bones are responsible for their mechanical properties." Matthew Griffiths reviewed the report of Croatia on problem 11, Yeast "Investigate the rate of the multiplication of yeast at different temperatures." 

It was tense throughout the final, with scores very close, but in the end we WON!

More photos can be seen in our gallery. This has been a massively rewarding and educational experience for all of the students (and teachers) involved, whether they made the IYNT team or not.

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Read about us in this article from the Education Gazette 8th November 2019.

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