Abstrakt
This article studies motives on why high school students participate in physics competitions in the form of a case study (with qualitative and quantitative elements) focused on one contest. We bring a brief insight into primary motivations for their participation and how it is changing later.
The pinpoint of our study is that it is hard to address new participants these days. Their most often motivation for starting in the competition is to get better in physics, general interest in physics and interest in solving challenging tasks.
For those who continue in participation - they usually want to get even better in physics. That's because participants often realise that they are not as good as they thought.
A motivation which is getting stronger is also to get an invitation to an educational camp. We also briefly discuss possible demotivational factors.