On Saturday, March 9th, 2024 more than 900 secondary students from all over BC travelled to UBC to participate in the 46th Annual UBC Physics Olympics.
Just to describe the scope of the event – we had 76 teams, 927 students participated in the event, a number of schools had 2 teams of 15 or more students, 100+ teachers, coaches, parents and future physics teachers, more than 80 volunteers from the departments of Physics and Astronomy and Curriculum and Pedagogy, as well as many spectators. We had so many people that we had to have three large auditoriums at the end of the day to hold the final award ceremony. However, the event is not just about numbers. The most amazing thing about it is that the event is a hands-on event and not a written theoretical competition. All the students participated in the hands-on labs, solved Fermi Questions, did Quizzics – answered conceptual physics questions and did two pre-build challenges. It was unbelievable to see the excitement of the students when they showed their contraptions and cheered each other during the events. It was a truly team science event that the students will remember forever.
To learn more about the UBC Physics Olympics, please visit the event web site.
Submitted by
Dr. Marina Milner-Bolotin
EDCP Representative on the UBC Physics Olympics Organizing Committee
