Welcome to UBC Physics Olympics Website
March, 2023: Thank you students, teachers and coaches for participating in the 2023 Physics Olympics! It was an immensely successful event, due in part to the great spirit of fun and competition brought by participants, and the amazing support and camaraderie shown by teachers and coaches. It was so enjoyable, we are already thinking ahead to next year’s events!
We will be updating this site as we have more media to share. Feel free to browse through our 2023 Rule Book, this year’s participating schools, the 2023 results page and more information for teachers.
About the Physics Olympics
Every year teams from high schools across British Columbia compete in six physics & astronomy events. The team with the highest overall score receives a trophy for their school, as well as other awards. Up to five students from a team can participate in any given event, and different students from a team can participate in different events. As such, teams may have between 1 and 30 students.
While every school team must have a designated coach on the day of the competition, we do not require that the coach be the physics teacher for the school. Any responsible adult may serve as the designated coach, including teachers, parents, administrators, or friends.
Details concerning the logistics of the event are included in the rule book. School teams arrive at the lobby of the Hennings Building around 8:30 am to register, receive the envelope with all the information, and store the pre-builds. The schedule runs from 9am-5pm (approximately). UBC Physics Olympics takes place in the following buildings: Hennings, Hebb, and IRC (Woodward). These buildings can be located on UBC map: http://www.maps.ubc.ca/PROD/index.php .
The interactive map for wayfinding at UBC can be found here: http://www.maps.ubc.ca/PROD/index.php
To see past projects please see the Results page for videos!
The rule book and all the updates are accessible from this site (top menu). For questions about the event, please review the video below from our Physics Olympics Workshop for Teachers, or contact outreach@phas.ubc.ca.
Physics Olympics Preparation Workshop For BC Teachers (Zoom Online) | November 17th, 2022 from 7:00pm-8:00pm PST.
We ran an online Physics Olympics preparation workshop on how to prep your class for this event. Experienced teachers and presenters shared their hands-on experiences and best tips for preparing physics classes for the Labs, Pre-builds, Quizzics and Fermi question sessions.
Missed our Physics Olympics Workshop? Please View Our Zoom Recording here:
Physics Olympics Feedback
“Some of the highlights of my career were my trips to UBC for the Physics Olympics. It was always a valuable experience for me and the students I brought down.” – Tom Nagy, Physics teacher (Mount Boucherie Secondary, West Kelowna)
“The UBC PO is always a highlight of our students’ school year.” – Louay El Halabi, Physics teacher (Semiahmoo Secondary, Surrey BC)
2023 Physics Olympics participating teams
Looking for something else?
*Looking for information about the International Physics Olympiad? The International Physics Olympiad (IPhO) is the World Championship Physics Competition for High School students and is held annually in a different country. For the official IPhO website, please see here. The national student team to represent Canada for 2023 will be selected from top placements in the annual Canadian Association of Physicists (CAP) High School Prize Exam. For more information, please see the Canadian Physics Olympiad program page here.