October 25, 2024 Filed in:
AnnouncementsRachel Richardson, Education & Outreach Coordinator
outreach@snolab.ca
Everybody loves a mystery, and dark matter is one of the biggest mysteries in our universe today. SNOLAB is Canada’s deep underground science laboratory that hosts large, international experiments; some of these experiments are designed to help unravel the mystery of dark matter. To celebrate Dark Matter Day, a public outreach initiative celebrated during Halloween, SNOLAB is hosting a creative poster design contest. Students and members of the community are invited to design original, two-dimensional visual artworks, in any medium, exploring the theme of dark matter.
Participants can be as creative as they like, letting their design shine as bright as the stars! Imagine an individual dark matter particle, or how it holds the universe together! They could draw an existing detector, dream up their own cosmic blueprint for an experiment, or travel deep into space following their imaginations into the oldest parts of the universe.
Read More...Tags: Contest, Modern Physics
February 05, 2023 Filed in:
AnnouncementsJim Chen, Physics Graduate Student, University of Toronto
jim.chen@stemfellowship.org
The Canadian Young Physicists’ Tournament (CaYPT) is a national high school research-based competition that also serves as a selection competition for the International Young Physicists’ Tournament (IYPT). In teams of 3-5, students conduct research on 10 open-ended physics problems with no definite solution. Students develop their own theoretical model, apply their physics knowledge and debate with other teams about their solutions to the problems.
CaYPT is looking for jurors to evaluate student presentations and give students a score based on the quality of their theoretical model, experimental results and overall presentation, including their discussion with other students. An honorarium of $70 is provided per half day of juror work.
Read More...Tags: Contest, STEM
March 21, 2022 Filed in:
AnnouncementsThe annual online physics contest open to ALL Grade 11 and 12 physics students will be occurring on May 25th. The contest is one hour long and is
free! The contest will be open to BOTH Grade 11 AND Grade 12 students due to the generous support of the Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering at the University of Toronto.
All physics teachers are encouraged to have their students enroll. Please remind students that it is intended to be a FUN contest and that it cannot impact their mark so that they do not feel intimidated to participate.
Read More...Tags: Contest
October 22, 2019 Filed in:
AnnouncementsJim Chen
caypt@stemfellowship.org
I would like to introduce to you a great opportunity for your students, the Canadian Young Physicists’ Tournament (CaYPT).
Unique Competition Style
Every year, the CaYPT Committee selects 10 open-ended physics problems for students to solve. Student form team of 3 to 5 and work for several month to conduct their own research. Unlike other physics competitions, the problems of CaYPT does not have a definite answer, it encourages students to develop their own theoretical model and conduct their own experiments to verify it.
CaYPT 2020 will be held in March at the University of Toronto. Students will present their solution in front of other teams in a thesis defense-like format. Their performance will be graded by professional physicists. The outstanding students will compete in the International Young Physicists Tournament (IYPT) representing Canada.
Great for Students and Teachers
The CaYPT is an exceptional opportunity for students since it allows them to apply physics concepts learned in class to real-life situations. It inspires students to explore concepts beyond the curriculum expectations. Many of the CaYPT problems can be easily converted to classroom demonstrations. This can help teachers attract more student into the school’s physics classes. Since the CaYPT is a team competition, it also makes for a great club activity.
For more information about CaYPT please visit
http://stemfellowship.org/caypt/For details about CaYPT 2020, please visit
http://stemfellowship.org/caypt/caypt-2020/The CaYPT 2020 Problems are available at
http://stemfellowship.org/problems/ If you have any questions please contact
caypt@stemfellowship.orgTags: Contest
May 08, 2019 Filed in:
AnnouncementsShawn Brooks, Manager of the OAPT Contest, teacher at UTS
sbrooks@utschools.ca
Sandy Evans, Editor of the OAPT Contest, teacher at Northview Heights Secondary School
Sandy.evans@tdsb.on.ca
This is a reminder about the upcoming FREE OAPT Physics Contest on May 22
nd. This year, for the first time, the contest will be open to BOTH Grade 11 AND Grade 12 students due to the generous support of the Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering at the University of Toronto.
Read More...Tags: Contest
March 31, 2019 Filed in:
AnnouncementsSandy Evans, Editor OAPT Physics Contest, Teacher Northview Secondary School
Sandy.evans@tdsb.on.ca
The OAPT Contest is a FREE physics contest and will run on May 22nd, 2019. It is free due to the generous support of the Department of Engineering at the University of Toronto.
It is open to all students in currently attending school in Ontario who had not completed 11U Physics in September 2018. There is even a strong possibility that it will be open in a separate division for Grade 12 students this year — more news about this to come!
Read More...Tags: Contest
November 22, 2017 Filed in:
AnnouncementsOn Wednesday May 23, 2018, the OAPT is running its annual grade 11 physics contest. The competition is meant to check students’ understanding of the grade 11 curriculum. Students have 60 minutes to answer 30 multiple choice questions.
It takes a team of volunteers to make the contest happen and we want to open it up to the membership to get involved. We are looking for questions. Criteria include: (a) being based on the grade 11 curriculum, (b) mostly conceptual, and (c) original. Whether you have one question or five (or ten), please email it/them to
oaptcontest@gmail.com by December 15.
Afterwards, the questions will be made available through the OAPT website as a resource for teachers to use as evaluations or as concept peer review questions. Credit will be given to all contributors.
More info about the contest and FAQ:
http://www.oapt.ca/grade_11_contest/Signing up for the contest and viewing previous contests:
http://oapt.ece.utoronto.caThank you for volunteering and / or signing up.
Tags: Contest
November 28, 2015 Filed in:
ArticlesRoberta Tevlin, OAPT Newsletter Editor, Physics Teacher Danforth CTI
Roberta.tevlin@tdsb.on.ca
Recently, a teacher asked me for advice about how to start running the
OAPT physics contest. I asked some teachers to help me answer this question. As well as finding great advice for getting students to write the contest, I also learnt about other contests and how teachers were incorporating past OAPT contest questions into their course all year long.
Read More...Tags: Assessment, Contest, Forces, Pedagogy
November 15, 2015 Filed in:
ArticlesShawn Brooks, Contest Manager, Teacher at University of Toronto Schools
sbrooks@utschools.caWe have always strived to have a range of question difficulty on our OAPT Grade 11 Physics Contest. We now have a new statistics feature, so that teachers will be able to review how well their students did on each question. When you find that your students had a difficult time with a particular question, you could try dividing your students into groups to discuss:
- why they agree or disagree with the official answer to the question
- how they could re-write the question to make it easier to solve
- why so many students picked the wrong answer
Read More...Tags: Assessment, Contest, Pedagogy
October 30, 2015 Filed in:
ArticlesMargaret Scora, Teacher at Monsignor Paul Dwyer CHS
mscora@sympatico.ca
It is very important to have our students engaged in the classroom in order for deep learning to occur. Your students need opportunities to use their creative spark and build on their 21st century learning skills.
Peter Benson’s TED talk does a great job of presenting how important this is.
Ideas for projects proliferate but many of these are time-consuming, expensive and beyond the skills of an average student and the tools of an average physics classroom. However, your students can build a catapult with K’Nex™ in just one class with virtually no prep and no trips to the wood shop.
Read More...Tags: Contest, Energy, Projectile Motion, STEM
