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

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. In addition to almost 500 high school students and teachers, more than 10 faculty members and more than 60 undergraduate and graduate students from UBC are involved in designing, prototyping and testing apparatus for the Olympic events and helping run the event on the big competition day.