This master's thesis focuses on the development and analysis of a structured problem covering the topics of uniformly accelerated motion, work, and energy for the national ninth-grade physics competition. The theoretical part presents the characteristics of gifted students, methods of identifying them, and approaches to working with them. In addition, it provides an overview of the beginnings, organization, and content of the primary school physics competition for the Stefan Awards. The objectives of the competition are aligned with the physics curriculum in primary school. The theoretical part also briefly presents other physics competitions. The empirical part of the thesis first describes the idea behind the structured problem and the factors that must be considered when designing such a problem. This is followed by a description and presentation of the problem in its individual parts. The problem is designed to use physics equations to help students understand concepts they encounter in everyday life. The second part of the empirical study consists of a quantitative analysis of ninth-grade students’ performance on the problem in the national competition in the 2025/26 school year and an analysis of the competitors' opinions of the problem. Based on the achievement data, the aim of this thesis is to examine whether performance on the structured problem correlates with overall competition results, to assess the difficulty index of the problem, to identify the parts that were solved most successfully, and to examine the most common errors made by the students. The questionnaire completed by the competitors provides feedback on the extent to which the problem was perceived as clear, appropriately challenging, and suitable for the available time. The findings provide guidance for improving physics teaching and for designing structured competition tasks in the coming years.
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