HIGH SCHOOL WORKSHOPS
COVID-19 Notes
Geering Up is working hard to set up our STEM workshops to be delivered virtually in May & June 2021. Stay tuned for more information in January 2021. We are able to offer a very limited number of virtual workshops from January – April 2021 to select schools. If you are interested in these workshops, or if you have any questions, please reach out to us at workshops@geeringup.ca.
General Workshop Information
- Dates for the 2021 workshop season will be released in January 2021!
- Length: 1 – 1.5 hours each with up to 3 workshops/day
- 2020 Workshop prices: $180 for 1, $150 ea for 3, $130 ea for 6
- New 2021 prices coming soon.
Geering Up offers high school science and engineering workshops consisting of exciting demonstrations, interactive experiments, and hands-on activities. Our workshops complement the curriculum student’s are currently learning. Our workshops are a chance for teachers to sit back, relax, and watch their students become engaged in the fun of science and engineering. Workshops are also an opportunity for student’s to meet current UBC students and ask questions about life at university. Please contact us to discuss how we can customize our workshops for your group.
Check out our High School programming page.
Available High school workshop topics in Lower Mainland:
Grade 8:Quake Shake
Available at Vancouver
In this hands-on workshop, students team up to address the relevant risk of earthquakes in Vancouver. They will explore wave properties in the context of earthquakes, and take part in an engineering design challenge to build a structure that will withstand a simulated earthquake while supporting various weights.
BC Science Curriculum Links: Plate Tectonics, Major Geological Events
Grade 8:Mysterious Micro-Organisms
Available at Vancouver
As humans are unable to see them, micro-organisms and their effects on humans can seem as a mystery. Through engaging, hands-on activities, students will team up to uncover the differences between viruses and bacteria, understand how each of them spread, and further, understand the impacts they have on society.
BC Science Curriculum Links: Life Processes; Our Relationships with Micororganisms: Immune system, Vaccination, Epidemics and Pandemics
Grade 9:Electrifying Design
Available at Vancouver, Fraser Valley
Harness the power of electrons with circuitry! Students will learn the basic principles of electrical design and about the difference between series and parallel circuits. Activities will include drawing circuit schematics and building physical breadboard circuits.
BC Science Curriculum Links: Flow of Electrons Through a Circuit, Voltage, Current, Resistance
Grade 9&11:Sustainable Chemistry
Available at Vancouver
Our world is producing a lot of waste at an alarming rate. Engineers and scientists are using green chemistry to invent sustainable solutions for our daily needs. One focus is on reducing single-use plastic waste by turning to bio-materials. In this activity, we will be creating edible bio-plastic from algae products and looking at the chemistry behind the reaction.
BC Science Curriculum Links: Green Chemistry (Grade 11), Applications of Organic Chemistry (Grade 11), Sustainability of systems (Grade 9)
Grade 10:Rocket Reactions
Available at Vancouver
What actually happens during a chemical reaction?! Students will learn about how atoms behave during reactions, will be presented with a variety of reaction types and will apply their knowledge to build micro rocket.
BC Science Curriculum Links: Rearrangement of Atoms in Chemical Reactions, Acid-Base Chemistry, Energy Change During Chemical Reactions
Grade 10:Dynamics and Design
Available at Vancouver
Forces and the energy behind them are a major consideration in mechanical engineering projects. Key concepts of mechanics will be conveyed through demos, and students will then have to apply these principles in designing a self-propelling vehicle.
BC Science Curriculum Links: Law of Conservation of Energy, Potential and Kinetic Energy, Transformation of Energy
Grade 10:Alien Genetics
Available at Vancouver
Questions like how tall we are, why we can or can’t roll our tongues and why we have certain food preferences can all be explored by examining genetics. In this activity, we will be looking at some of our inherited traits, and then we will use a digital platform to create our own alien offspring to help us understand phenotypes and genotypes.
BC Science Curriculum Links: Patterns of Inheritance, DNA structure and function
Grade 11:Physics FUNdamentals
Available at Vancouver
In this workshop, students will explore the fundamentals of grade 11 physics through a series of challenges. They will take part in projectiles target practice, refractive fishing, forming friction, and a simple machines design challenge. Points will be earned based on the performance and completion of each challenge as the students compete in teams for the title of physics champions!
BC Science Curriculum Links: An object’s motion can be predicted, analyzed, and described, Forces influence the motion of an object.
Grade 8-10:Win Big with Python
Available at Vancouver
In this workshop, students will learn the basics of object oriented programming by applying design and computational techniques to the game blackjack! In teams, students will play the card game to determine the behaviours and elements we will need to write a software program. Then, we will use Python to implement our design plan and create a blackjack program!
BC Science Curriculum Links: Programming languages, text-based coding, programming concepts & constructs, computational thinking
Grade 11-12:Discovering Autonomous Devices
Available at Vancouver
Students will learn and demonstrate how microcontrollers are used in computer applications by collecting sensory inputs and turning them into actions. In practice, students will apply basic principles of autonomous devices by creating circuits to connect an arduino to sensors and actuators, and write a program that controls the system.
BC Science Curriculum Links: Tools and technologies can be adapted for specific purposes, sensors, programmable microcontrollers
Grade 8-10:Introduction to Machine Learning
Available at Vancouver
In this workshop, students will be introduced to the world of machine learning and artificial intelligence. You will explore real world examples with your own machine learning algorithm that uses existing datasets to make predictions.
BC Science Curriculum Links: Tools and technologies can be adapted for specific purposes, User needs and interests drive the design process, innovative technology, programming concepts
Grade 8 -10:Augmented Exploration
Available at Vancouver
Augmented and Virtual Reality is an exciting, new, rapidly evolving technology that is making advancements in fields such as medicine and retail. This workshop allows students to explore AR & VR and to create their own AR experience!
BC Science Curriculum Links: User needs and interests drive the design process, innovative technology
Frequently Asked Questions
Workshops are available:
Before Recess (9:00-10:00)
After Recess (10:30-11:30)
After Lunch (1:00 – 2:00)
This can be altered to fit your school’s bell schedule. For more information about scheduling and pricing, visit our workshops home page.
Please fill out High school Registration Form and email it to us at workshops@geeringup.ca. Feel free to include any additional information along with your registration form, that you feel could be helpful for our workshops team to know to ensure the success of your workshop. This may include, but is not limited to, students with exceptionalities, classroom limitations, special considerations, and so on.
If your question isn't answered on our website, feel free to contact us at workshops@geeringup.ca for any questions that you may have.
