Volunteers from UBC Physics & Astronomy visit Embers, Girl Guides and Scouts groups and more (typically 6-15 years old) over the 2nd school term (Jan-April) to share the wonders of physics with them.
Meet some of our 2025 Teachers! From left to right: Chloe, Joey, Saloni, Mitchell, Bhavna, Felix, Zach (top) and Elise.
Updates
April, 2025: By the end of April we will have finished up our visits for this academic year! Thank you volunteers for your great instruction and participation in this program! Thank you youth group leaders for participating! We love sharing science!
We will be starting up applications again in September, 2025. Group leaders, we offer hosted/in-house visits (at our Outreach Lab on campus) and in-person visits to Sparks, Embers, Girl Guides, Pathfinders, Cubs, Scouts groups and more by request.
- In-house visits can be arranged by interest, or will be suggested when we don’t have the resources to get to more 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.
2025-: 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.
Registration
Interested leaders can register for a visit using the online form HERE
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.”
- Love this opportunity to show kids the many amazing things that they can explore! Thank you for offering these!
- A wonderful program – and one we hope we can utilize yearly!
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, Ben Scully, Bavna Bharat, Breanna Wegewitz, Chloe Lawson, Elise Phelan, Elys Jamieson, Felix Chan, Felix Cormier, Hajeong Kim, Kaylee Bains, Mira Roddy, Mitchell Halajian, Nick Phillips, Ripley Stafford, Saloni Maniar, Sarah Rubridge, 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.