Volunteers from UBC Physics & Astronomy visit Embers, Girl Guides and Scouts groups and more (typically 6-15 years old) regularly to share the wonders of physics with them.
Updates
January, 2025: Visits have officially started 🙂 We do our best to reach as many groups as possible. Reminder: as our volunteers are dependent upon public transit for travel, if your group is further afield, please consider coming to UBC! To inquire, please contact outreach@phas.ubc.ca.
December, 2025:Â Thank you, everyone, for registering! We are scheduling over this month and will be in touch re: best times for your groups, based on our volunteer availability. Talk to you, soon!
September, 2024: Welcome to the new school year! We will be gathering volunteers for training in this term, to schedule visits in the new year (January – April, 2025). Please register your group with us, below!
May, 2024: We have competed our visit schedule for 2024! We were so pleased to meet your groups and share the love of physics & astronomy. In the New Year (January – April 2025), we will be offering hosted/in-house visits (at our Outreach Lab on campus) and in-person visits to Sparks, Embers, Girl Guides, Pathfinders, Cubs and Scouts groups.Â
- In-house visits can be arranged by interest, or will be suggested when we don’t have the resources to get to distant locations.
- In-person visits depend on volunteer availability in the area, so we recommend selecting both in-person and in-house options if possible.
2024-25: At this time UBC does not have a Covid-19 vaccine status mandate for students/staff/faculty. See the UBC updated policy here. If you require vaccine status, please contact outreach@phas.ubc.ca.Â
Registration
Interested leaders can register for a visit using the online form HEREÂ
Please note that we try to fulfill as many visits as we can, dependent upon volunteer availability and the location of your group (most of our volunteers use public transit). We may not be able to accommodate all requests. If your group is able to come to us on UBC campus, this is generally easiest for us to schedule.
Feedback from Group Leaders
- “Thank you. It was a great activity. The two student instructors were great with the kids, friendly and helpful and informative.”
- “The facilitators were fantastic! Kind, fun and patient.”
- “This was a wonderful workshop and the facilitators were fantastic with the group. We hugely appreciate that they volunteered their time to come to do this with us!”
- “The hosts were really great and engaging! Everyone learned something.”
- [The presenters] “were all so engaged and positive the entire time, brought great energy and enthusiasm, and they were also incredibly patient and kind with all of the girls in my groups, and answered all the questions and accepted the incorrect guesses with grace and kindness. All presenters brought unique qualities that really enhanced the workshops.”
Photos from recent visits:
Volunteers
Our Outreach Volunteers are undergraduate and graduate students in Physics & Astronomy programs at UBC. Their interest in outreach and desire to share the beauty of science with youth is what makes this outreach program so successful!
2024-2025 Volunteers: Akshat Mishra, Astrid Wehner, Austin Zhu, Ben Scully, Bavna Bharat, Breanna, Chloe Hess, Chloe Lawson, Diego Araujo, Elise Phelan, Elys Jamieson, Felix Chan, Felix Cormier, Hajeong Kim, Kang Choi, Kaylee Bains, Kylie Krueger, Mira Roddy, Mitchell Halajian, Nane Vardanyan, Nathan Durand, Nick Phillips, Nissan Roy CHowdhury, Pascale Luers, Ripley Stafford, Saloni Maniar, Sam Tu, Sarah Rubige, Vismaya Pillai, Zach Mitchell.
2023-2024 Volunteers: Amrita Johal, Austin Zhu, Ben Scully, Breanna Wegewitz, Félix Cormier, Grace Campbell, Helena Nunez, Katelynn Hubenig, Lila Wolfe, Minh Lai Nguyen, Nane Vardanyan, Olivia Lowe, Pascale Luers, Petar Simidzija, Sajjan Grewal, Zach Mitchell, and Yuka Ma.
2022-2023 Volunteers: Alexis Hilts, Andrea Schildhorn, Amr Jelassi, Arieh Irving-Hughes, Arnav Khandelwal, Elizabeth Flanagan, Connor Bevington, Danielle Egilson, Elise Phelan, Félix Cormier, Jasmine Atwal, Jenny Zhu, Maskeen Kaur, Michael Sekatchev, Michelle Medina, Mitchell Halajian, Nane Vardanyan, Olivia Lowe, Sajjan Grewal, Pascale Luers, Steven Yu.