2015 CAP Congress / Congrès de l'ACP 2015

37 Years of High School Physics Olympics Competitions at the University of British Columbia

17 Jun 2015, 19:00

2m

CCIS Ground Floor PCL lounge (University of Alberta)

Poster (Non-Student) / affiche (non-étudiant) Physics Education / Enseignement de la physique (DPE-DEP) DPE Poster Session with beer / Session d'affiches avec bière DPE

Speakers

Janis McKenna (University of British Columbia) Marina Milner-Bolotin (The University of British Columbia)

Description

The Physics Olympics is an annual high school physics competition held at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. This year, more than 400 students on 56 teams, with at least one teacher/coach per team, came from all over British Columbia to participate in the 37th Annual Physics Olympics. The competition consists of six hands-on events, of which two are pre-built by the students in the month before the competition. In recent years, a professional development workshop and networking opportunities have been offered to the physics teachers/coaches. We believe it is one of the largest annual physics high school outreach events in Canada. More than 10 faculty members and more than 60 Physics and Astronomy undergraduate and graduate students are involved each year in designing, prototyping and testing events and apparatus for the Olympic events and helping run the event on the big competition day.