Welcome to UBC Physics Olympics Website
Congratulations to all who participated in the 46th Physics Olympics! What a tremendous amount of talent and skills we saw from students! We hope you all enjoyed the day, made friends, learned lots and now feel like the physics superstars that you are.
And thank you to BC Teachers and coaches who got your students involved in the pre-builds and prep for labs, Quizzics and Fermi questions events. Your support is what makes this competition a success!
We appreciate your feedback: our aim is to make this the greatest physics competition it can be, and this is done with your help. To share comments and ideas, please contact outreach@phas.ubc.ca.
Thank YOU so much for all the hard work that went into making this happen. My students learned so much these past few weeks preparing and enjoyed themselves tremendously. It was a terrific learning opportunity as always.
– Mrs. Greenwood, Physics/Computer Programming Teacher
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!
Download Your Physics Olympics Poster 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)
2024 Physics Olympics participating teams
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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.