On Tuesday 26th January, 16 students were selected from Handsworth Grammar School to compete in the 11th annual Physics ‘Big Quiz’. This was held at the University of Birmingham, with 90 teams taking part, representing schools from all over the West Midlands and Staffordshire, including many of our selective school ‘rivals’.  We arrived at the University at 9:45am with Mr Jones, Head of Science, confident that we could win this year to match the achievement of last year’s HGS teams!

The morning began with a word search round and, after this, we were formally introduced to our hosts and made acquainted with the rules. The most important of these rules was that each team, of which we had separated into four groups of four, had access to a ‘Joker’, which allowed our points to be doubled for that single round.  It could be used in any round apart from the final round, which we were told in advance was on ‘The Physics of Einstein’.

There were 3 rounds in the morning session. The first round was some questions on ‘Waves’, followed by a round in which we had to identify an object from its description. Round 3 contained a number of mathematical questions which we had to solve. At the end of each round there was a ‘Spot Question’ for which we had to get the closest answer e.g. what is the mass of the Sun in kilograms? (My group and Vyom’s tied on this question; sadly, he won the chocolates).

We were then treated to a lecture by Professor David Evans from the University on the subject of how Physics has created heavier elements, and what elements are inside our bodies.

There were 3 further rounds in the afternoon. The first one was to identify famous scientists from a picture and/or a description. Amazingly, we guessed four right out of ten!  Round 5 was a miscellaneous round; finally there was the round on the ‘specialist’ area of study – The Physics of Einstein.

HGS Team A (Fronz, Gyani, Ali and Edward, all miraculously in Nelson) claimed first place out of the 90 teams. Their prize was a large trophy that the school will return next year and a smaller trophy that the school will keep. The four winners also each received a medal and a telescope.  HGS Team B (Godfrey, Anmol, Ismaeel Y and Matthew) came 4th.  HGS Teams C and D (Nayan, Sharujan, Bobby, Ismaeel M (me), Farhaan, Vyom, Amritpal and Daanish) won the spot prize about the mass of the Sun and also came joint 5th overall.  Everyone was pleased with their achievement and happy to retain the trophy from last year.

Finally, on behalf of all of us who participated, I would like to thank Mr Jones, who recruited us.  I would like to wish Mr Jones good luck in finding people in the current Year 8 who will live up to the phenomenal and flabbergasting standard set by our year group and last year’s Year 9!

Ismaeel Mahmood 9A