All programs

A free seven-month mentorship pairing you one-to-one with a U of A engineering student, who helps with university applications, the move from high school and what engineering is really like. You meet at least monthly however suits you both, and there are group events like class shadowing, design challenges and facility tours. Students from anywhere in Canada can join; travel to in-person events is not covered. Applications for 2026-27 close September 30, 2026.

A free year-long conservation program: explore one big conservation question through expert videos and discussion online, monthly Saturday field trips and hands-on service-learning at real conservation sites, while meeting people who work in conservation careers. Ends with a certificate of completion.

The standard way to show quantitative rigour on an application to an American university, and the qualifying route to the AIME and the olympiad path beyond it. Twenty-five questions in 75 minutes on advanced algebra, geometry, number theory and combinatorics. For 2026/27 the A versions run November 5, 2026 and the B versions November 13, 2026. October 15, 2026 is the final registration deadline for a school that has never hosted before, so if no school near you offers it, ask a math teacher to sign up as a competition manager well ahead of that.

Your teacher registers the school by October 22 (October 15 for shipped exams); the contest is written October 29, 2026. Independent registration opens around September 16 only if your school is not participating. Top scorers are invited to the Canadian Mathematical Olympiad.

The CEMC's November contests, with full-solution questions alongside short answers. A step up from Pascal, Cayley and Fermat and a common route toward the Canadian Open Mathematics Challenge. Schools order by October 22, 2026 for the November 18, 2026 contest.

A computational-thinking contest with no coding: logic and problem-solving puzzles built on the math students already know. A gentle first step before the Canadian Computing Competition. Schools register by October 26, 2026 for the November 9–20, 2026 window.

Phase 1 (Activation) of the 2026-27 Conrad Challenge runs August 27 to October 30, 2026; Phase 2 (Innovation) closes January 8, 2027, with the Innovation Summit April 21-24, 2027. Student teams pitch a commercially viable solution to a real-world problem.

Alberta's provincial honour choir for singers aged 16 to 22, led by conductors from across Canada and abroad. For AYC 2027 your teacher or conductor recommends you by November 2, 2026, and auditions run November 23 to 28. The choir meets for a rehearsal weekend and a residency.

A one-day science, engineering and technology conference with hands-on lab activities, panels with professionals, career sessions and a networking mixer. Registration opens October 2, 2026, with payment due November 3; it is limited to 225 students, so register early to choose your sessions.

The 25th session of the U of A's high school Model UN: delegates represent countries in committee debates on global issues. Teachers register schools October 13 to November 5, 2026; students then register by December 19, 2026, and position papers are due February 12, 2027.

The largest hackathon in the world, built entirely on open NASA and partner space agency data. Teams spend a weekend on a real challenge written by NASA experts, spanning software, data science, hardware, design and science storytelling. Alberta hubs ran in both Calgary and Edmonton in 2025. The 2026 edition runs November 14 to 15 with registration opening August 26, 2026, so check the site for the confirmed Alberta locations.

A school year abroad as a Rotary youth ambassador: live with two to four host families, attend high school full-time and learn the language. For the August 2027 departure, southern Alberta applications close November 15, 2026, with interviews in late November. Students in northern Alberta apply through Rotary District 5370.

You are paired with a U of T math graduate student, postdoc or professor and work on a research project in a field of math you choose, from January to May. Meetings can be online, but the January reception and the May showcase happen in person in Toronto, so an Alberta student needs two trips. The top projects are presented at the Canadian Undergraduate Mathematics Conference. Applications open November 3 and close December 1, 2026.

An online research incubator where you pick a problem that matters, get matched with a mentor and produce a real piece of work over the cohort, in anything from policy and economics to computer science and biology. It runs in three tiers: Research Foundations gives a certificate and community access, Research Fellows adds mentorship and project grants, and Research Scholars adds custom mentorship and a $10,000 scholarship. Applications for the next cohort open in November 2026, with a priority deadline of December 15, 2026 and a final deadline of January 4, 2027. Widely circulated figures about a $500 acceptance award and $30,000 in seed funding are not on the Non-Trivial site as of August 2026, so treat the tiers above as the published offer.

The world's largest environmental sustainability competition for teenagers: identify a real environmental problem and design a solution, submitted as an Earth Prize Blueprint that ends in a video pitch. Register by January 10, 2027 and submit by January 31, 2027.

A free global pitch competition in two tracks: Business Innovation (a venture that makes money solving a customer problem) and Social Innovation (a venture with social or environmental impact). Submit a 3–5 page concept and a 60-second video; advancing teams hear back February 10, and finalists pitch at the summit.

Canada's largest health science competition for high school students, run by a chartered HOSA association since 2014. Members enter one of about 30 events, from medical terminology to veterinary science and medical law, and the top three in each earn a place at the International Leadership Conference. You join through a chapter at your own school, or start one: five students, a president and a teacher advisor. The online Fall Leadership Conference runs November 15–22, 2026; SLC 2027 is in Toronto, March 1–3, and is high-school only.

A paid summer in a UCalgary health research lab the summer after Grade 12, funded by Alberta Innovates. You find a faculty supervisor first, then apply together. Applications open November 23, 2026 and close January 25, 2027; students without a UCalgary ID request one first.

A science competition for Canadian and US students. Your team of 2 to 4 imagines a future technology, researches the science behind it and writes it up: a project description of up to 11 pages, an abstract, a bibliography and a launch flyer. High school teams (Grades 10 to 12) compete in their own division. First-prize students each get US$5,000 cash (or a larger savings bond), second prize US$2,500, and the eight finalist teams go to Washington, DC in June. Every student on a team that submits a complete project gets a certificate and a gift. Note that it asks for citizenship, not residency.

Lethbridge's competitive festival for music and speech arts. You perform for an adjudicator, solo or in a group, and can win awards. The 2027 festival runs April 12 to 23, and registration is open December 1 to January 29. The 2027 syllabus lists the classes and fees.

One of North America's largest competitive performing arts festivals, with over 3,000 entries a year. You perform for an adjudicator in music or speech arts, solo or in a group, and compete for more than $40,000 in scholarships. Registration for 2027 opens November 1, 2026 and closes January 31, 2027. Fees depend on your age, how long you perform and how many are on stage.

Canada's national training orchestra. Musicians spend the summer in intensive rehearsal and coaching with professional faculty, then perform. No member pays tuition: everyone gets a full scholarship and an honorarium. You apply with an audition video. The application fee rises the later you apply: $50 in the first week of October, $75 to November 30 and $100 after that. Videos are due February 1, 2027.

Canada's largest regional science fair. Schools register October 1 to December 4 and independent entrants from December 10; every project must be registered with its ethics forms by February 4. Winning here is the route to the Canada-Wide Science Fair for Calgary students.

The CEMC entry point to competitive mathematics before Euclid, with a separate contest for each of grades 9, 10 and 11. Twenty-five multiple-choice questions in 60 minutes, graded in three parts of increasing difficulty. A good first contest and the standard way Alberta students build toward Euclid and the Canadian Open Mathematics Challenge. Canadian schools order by February 9, 2027 for the February 23–24, 2027 contests.

Premier Canadian programming and algorithm design challenge hosted by the University of Waterloo. Students apply advanced computer science and algorithmic research to solve complex problems. Top scorers are invited to the Canadian Computing Olympiad (CCO).

The Peace Country's competitive music festival. You perform for an adjudicator in classes from the Alberta and local syllabi, and top performers are featured in the Grand Concert. The 2027 festival runs March 21 to April 30, and entries close February 11, 2027. You register online through the festival site.

A free online pitch competition for high school students from 170+ countries. Alone or with up to four friends, you build a business idea with the provided Blue Ocean tools and templates, then submit a pitch video of under five minutes. There are cash prizes for students and prizes for their schools. Pitches are due February 21, 2027.

Students write Python code for a task set by ESA scientists, test it on the Astro Pi replica, and qualifying programs run on the Astro Pi computers aboard the International Space Station. Canada takes part as an ESA cooperating state. A shorter Mission Zero, about an hour of coding, is also open.

Memorize and recite poems from the Poetry In Voice anthology, including at least one written before the 21st century, in the English, French or bilingual stream. Submissions open February 1, 2027; senior semifinalists are named March 11 and finalists March 18.

An international high school project fair with nine categories: science, art, short film, music, robotics, entrepreneurship, speech, coding and artificial intelligence. Students submit a project online; finalists are announced March 25 and present in person at the finals in Rochester, New York.

A seven-week summer at UC Santa Barbara where you are paired with a graduate student, postdoc or professor and carry out your own research project, with lectures on research methods along the way. International students are welcome. Applications for 2027 open December 15, 2026 and close March 8, 2027, with decisions on a rolling basis. It is expensive: in 2026, US$5,675 to commute or US$13,274 living on campus.

Canada's best-known senior high school mathematics contest, written each year by more than 25,000 students worldwide. Ten questions in 2.5 hours, mixing final-answer and full-solution problems. Results carry real weight in University of Waterloo admissions and scholarship decisions. Ask a math teacher to register the school. The ordering deadline is March 11, 2027 for the April 6, 2027 contest.

Four-question contests where the written solution counts, not just the answer: good practice for proof-style problems. Schools order by March 11, 2027 for the April 7, 2027 contests.

Paid six-week health research at ULethbridge through Alberta Innovates' High School Youth Researcher Summer (HYRS), for Grade 11 students. The 2027 program runs July 2 to August 13. Applications close March 26, 2027, and your three references (two science or math teachers and one community member) are due March 29. Afterwards you present your research to a Grade 11 science class.

Highest level of chemistry competition for Canadian youth. You enter through the Canadian Chemistry Contest in April, which the Chemical Institute of Canada runs and uses to select for the Olympiad; national-team candidates then work through online problem sets, a take-home exam and a national camp. Preparation goes far beyond the high school curriculum, into organic, inorganic and physical chemistry. Top students represent Canada at the International Chemistry Olympiad.

High school students take college courses for credit alongside Harvard Summer School students, in four- or seven-week sessions on campus, commuting or online. Early and regular deadlines are January 13 and February 10, 2027, and the late deadline is March 31. International residential students get visa sponsorship.

A University of Waterloo biology contest on Grade 11 and 12 content, open to schools worldwide. Teachers register students from mid-February until April 9, 2027, for the April 22, 2027 contest.

A team math contest for six students, run as an in-school event on or after April 14, 2027, or at the University of Waterloo by lottery. Schools order the in-school version by April 12, 2027; the Waterloo lottery closes November 19, 2026.

The University of Waterloo's senior chemistry contest, the Grade 12 counterpart to the Avogadro exam. Written online at school; teachers register students by April 23, 2027 for the May 6, 2027 exam.

The University of Waterloo's Grade 11 chemistry contest, written online at school with a teacher supervising. Teachers register students by April 30, 2027 for the May 13, 2027 exam.

Formerly the Ocean Awareness Contest: respond to the year's environmental theme with art, film, poetry, creative writing, music, dance or interactive work. The 2027 theme is "Nature of Truth: Environmentalism in an Age of Disinformation".

An ESA challenge to design a habitat on the Moon, open to Canada because Canada cooperates with ESA. Use any design tool you like, from 3D modelling to games, robotics or experiments. A teacher or educator registers the team and submits on the Moon Camp site. Every valid entry gets an ESA certificate and a place in the online gallery, and teams are invited to a livestream with an astronaut. Early certificates go to entries in by April 19, 2027. Only students up to 16 qualify.

Free conservation research and leadership program connecting youth 15–18 with nature through hands-on environmental research and conservation projects. Active programming available in Edmonton and Calgary areas.

Your class plants two sets of tomato seeds, one flown to the International Space Station, and compares germination. Free, teacher-ordered, and a real dataset.

Rigorous engineering challenge where high school teams design, program, and build industrial-size robots in a 6-week build season. Requires applied research in mechanics, CAD, and control systems. Many Alberta teams compete in the Canadian Rockies regional event.

4-H Alberta's Senior division runs from age 15 to 20. Members carry a project through the October-to-September club year and present it to judges. The project list reaches well past agriculture (Veterinary Sciences, Engineering, Welding, Entomology, Photography and Written Communications are all on it), grouped under four pillars including Science & Technology. Senior members can also compete at the spring Senior Symposium at Olds College for national and international travel selection; it charges a registration fee, and its dates are announced each year.

Free curriculum-aligned AI learning kits and guest speaker sessions that Amii provides to Alberta schools, including an AI in Junior High stream. Delivered by your teachers rather than applied to directly, so the way in is asking a teacher to bring it into your classroom.

Ten weeks of one-to-one research with a PhD mentor, ending in a paper, podcast or prototype. Tuition-based, with need-based financial aid.

Challenges like Energy Revealed, Eco 360 and Re-Energy prompt students to research local energy consumption or climate policy, then design and implement a data-backed emissions reduction strategy for their school or municipality.

Grade 9-12 teams design, build and program competition robots for game-based tournaments held locally across Alberta, fall through spring.

Distinct from the larger FRC, FTC teams design, build, and program smaller-scale robots using Java and Android-based technology. Requires applied research into control systems and computer vision. More accessible entry point than FRC with lower build costs.

Volunteer alongside science communicators at Calgary's science centre, running workshops, staffing exhibits and supporting summer camps. A steady way into science outreach experience, and one of the few STEM volunteer roles in Calgary open at 14 through the camp stream.

Paid IT work experience refurbishing and deploying computers, about 20 placements a year. You must have finished high school to apply.

Delivered through Alberta school boards, allowing students to research network vulnerabilities and earn industry-recognized certifications in cybersecurity, networking, and IT fundamentals directly through their high school.

Virtual platform with active Canadian school partnerships providing mentorship and micro-credentials in artificial intelligence, web development, and cloud computing. Students earn IBM-recognized badges upon completion.

Volunteer placements in AHS regional hospitals and clinics offering direct exposure to clinical environments, health administration, and medical technology. South Zone placements available for students in Lethbridge, Medicine Hat, and surrounding communities.

An observing group rather than a research placement. Members learn the constellations and the bright star names, follow the moon phases, keep an observation logbook, sketch or photograph the night sky, and work through the RASC observing certificates from the easy targets up to the faint ones thousands of light years out. The group meets monthly on a Friday evening at the Wilson Coulee Observatory just south of Calgary, and on Zoom, breaking for the summer. A RASC youth membership lets you use the observatory site on your own time; you register by emailing the youth group coordinator. The Edmonton Centre has no equivalent youth stream.

Paid internships that place high school students with Alberta employers in skilled trades, ICT, health, agriculture, forestry and energy. Students earn high school credits while working and can roll a placement into a Registered Apprenticeship. Free to students; start dates vary across the province.

Be a full-time student and a registered apprentice at the same time. Students split their week between school and an approved work site, earning one high school credit for every 25 hours on the job (up to 41 credits), while those hours also count toward journeyperson certification. Free application through Apprenticeship and Industry Training.

Earn high school credits and a post-secondary credential or workplace certification at the same time, across more than 20 options: skilled trades (welding, carpentry, pipe trades, automotive, heavy equipment), software and web development, IT, health care, aviation, business, culinary and construction. Offered at no direct tuition cost. Students enrol through their high school.

JA Southern Alberta's flagship program: a student-led, mentor-supported team builds and runs a real company over 20 weeks, covering market research, financial planning, sales and a year-end tradeshow. Participants also get executive and sales training plus events like World of Choices. Runs in class or as an after-school activity at multiple Calgary locations.

Financial literacy, entrepreneurship and work readiness programming for northern Alberta students, including the after-school Company Program where a student team builds and runs a real business. Delivered in partnership with schools; self-directed options are also available.

The provincial association for school-based speech and debate in Alberta, running junior and senior tournaments in English and French across Language Arts, Drama, Social Studies and Science. Builds research, argument construction and public speaking skills, and sends qualifiers to national and international competitions. Students take part through a club at their school.

A non-competitive award earned by logging hours in four areas: physical recreation, a skill, voluntary service and an adventurous journey, with a residential project added at Gold. It is the standard way to get formal, internationally recognized credit for the sport, clubs and volunteering you are already doing, and it is recognized in more than 130 countries. Over 4,000 young Albertans are enrolled. Bronze is presented by a community leader, Silver by the Lieutenant Governor and Gold by the Governor General or a member of the Royal Family.

The largest youth startup accelerator in Canada, a national charity founded by Hootsuite founder Ryan Holmes. Launch It is a free self-paced course for getting an idea off the ground. Labs is the flagship 12-week virtual accelerator, with workshops, mentors, AMA sessions and a cohort of other young founders. Boost is a 12-month program for founders further along. All three are free and take no equity, and the deposits are returned on completion. Applications for the fall 2026 Labs cohort opened in July 2026.

Volunteer at Edmonton's science centre: welcome visitors, lead hands-on activities and experiments, and explain the space, nature and health galleries. Applications are taken anytime, with intakes in late August, late November and late March.

Hundreds of guided group volunteer projects across Calgary that you sign up for one at a time, with no minimum commitment. After 20 volunteer hours, Youth Central writes you a reference letter, useful for scholarship applications.

The federal youth volunteer service program: find a service placement with a partner organization, or propose your own project and apply for a micro-grant to run it. Placements are volunteer, not paid. Search and apply for current placements at youth.volunteer.ca.

More than 40 dual credit courses for 2026–27 across nine areas: arts and tech, business, communication, health, human services, justice, math and engineering, sciences and trades, including an Introduction to the Trades pathway. Finishing one or more courses guarantees admission to a Lethbridge Polytechnic program (apprenticeship and competitive-entry programs excepted). Ask your guidance counsellor.

Take Red Deer Polytechnic courses while still in high school and graduate with both credits, or even a certificate. Options include psychology, biology for health professions, sociology, personal fitness and an introduction to the construction trades. Talk to your guidance counsellor to register.

Dual credit in business, early learning and child care, education, health (including health care aide), humanities and skilled trades. Start with your guidance counsellor, who sends your permission package to NWP; you then apply online and hear back in three to four weeks. The $80 application fee is waived for 2026–27.

Eleven college courses you can take in high school for both credits: anatomy and physiology, digital design, video production, animation, esports business, medical terminology, criminal justice, sociology, legal studies and child development.

Twenty-three dual credit opportunities in northern Alberta: trades (carpenter, electrician, welder, heavy equipment technician), health care aide, practical nurse, primary care paramedic, business, power engineering, social work, education assistant and university studies. Bursary forms are available; start with your school.

A free national youth program in three elements: Air Cadets (aviation, including ground school), Army Cadets and Sea Cadets, all built around leadership, fitness, marksmanship, public speaking and community service. Pick an element, find the nearest unit in the corps and squadron directory, register online, then meet local staff to finish joining.

Youth-led mental health groups in more than 150 high schools, colleges and universities: members plan their own initiatives, run awareness events and advocate on the mental health issues that matter to their community. Jack.org provides training, monthly coaching calls and annual funding to chapters.

An outdoor club program in wilderness skills, forestry, ecology and leadership, with regular meetings, camps, hikes, canoe trips and skiing. The Adventurers and Challengers level includes a conference weekend and competitions that test outdoor knowledge and teamwork. Find a club near you on the association's site.

An apprenticeship-style agriculture program: train on-site under experienced farm staff in one of 13 pathways, from beef, dairy and equine to field crops, greenhouse, poultry, sheep and swine. Earn up to 16 Grade 12 diploma credits and a credential toward a career in agriculture. Enrolment is year-round.

The Scouts Canada section for ages 15–17: youth plan and lead their own outdoor expeditions, service projects and leadership challenges with others who share their interests. Fees combine the national membership fee and a local group fee; Scouts Canada offers financial assistance so cost is not a barrier.

The Girl Guides branch for teens: Rangers lead community projects, mentor younger girls, raise awareness for causes they choose, and go on overnight canoe trips while learning skills like budgeting and resume writing. Registration for 2026–27 is open.

A funded homestay exchange between your group and a twinned group elsewhere in Canada: each group hosts the other for 7–10 days. Themes include sports, music, Indigenous, regional, language and history exchanges. Organizers apply year-round, at least 60 days before travel.

A free province-wide youth group on environment, energy and climate: meet online every two weeks, lead your own AYLEE Action Project in your community, and present at environmental and education events, with chances to work on advocacy campaigns, white papers and youth summits.

A worldwide network of student-led high school coding clubs where members learn by building and shipping a project at each meeting. Everything is free: leadership training, curriculum, an online community, a web-based coding environment, and "You ship, we ship" programs that reward finished projects with hardware.

A quarterly journal that publishes history research papers written by secondary students. Essays run 5,000 to 10,000 words or more with Chicago-style endnotes, and about 5% of submissions are published. Papers are accepted on a rolling basis and stay eligible for the next three issues (quarterly cutoffs are August 1, November 1, February 1 and May 1).

A peer-reviewed science journal run by graduate students that publishes original research by middle and high school students. Every manuscript needs a student author and an adult senior author, and editors and reviewers give detailed feedback that guides the paper through revision to publication. Submissions are accepted year-round.

Rotary's service and leadership clubs for teens. Members plan local and international service projects, run fundraisers and build leadership skills with support from a sponsoring Rotary club. Northern Alberta's District 5370 alone has about 18 high school clubs, and southern Alberta's District 5360 sponsors more.

A paid online research mentorship where each student works one-on-one with a PhD mentor to learn about a field and produce an independent research paper. Cohorts start several times a year with separate deadlines, and finishing earns credit from UC San Diego Extended Studies. It has given over US$1.8 million in financial aid to low-income students.

A Canadian peer-reviewed, open-access journal for research by high school and university students. Papers go through double-blind review by subject experts before publication. Original research, reviews and shorter viewpoint pieces are accepted any time. Publishing costs $400 CAD once a paper is accepted, with discounts or waivers for some competition winners.

A federal program that funds summer jobs for students at museums, archives, libraries and heritage sites. High school students aged 16 or older qualify. You create an account on the Young Canada Works portal, search the posted jobs and say which interest you. There is no deadline, but most hiring is for summer, so apply in the spring. First-time participants get priority, and travel and lodging may be covered for a job more than 125 km from home.

A paid online course in artificial intelligence in groups of about five students per instructor, taught by graduates of Stanford, MIT and similar universities. You learn Python and AI basics, then build a mentored AI project for social impact. Sessions run in fall, winter and summer, and applications are rolling. The winter 2026-27 intensives run daily over the holiday break. It is expensive and not affiliated with any university, so weigh it against free options.

Kiwanis's high school service club, on more than 5,000 campuses in 30 countries. Members run service projects and build leadership skills with support from a local Kiwanis club. Alberta clubs are at Brooks Composite, North Trail in Calgary, Jasper Place, J. Percy Page and Strathcona Composite in Edmonton, Holy Rosary in Lloydminster and Crescent Heights in Medicine Hat. Kiwanis Western Canada can help start one at your school.

A Calgary youth theatre that runs weekly drama classes, summer camps and a season of four productions that young actors audition for. Teens have their own classes and specialty camps, including musical theatre, improv, stage makeup, and acting with stage combat. Register through the CYPT registration store.

Paid six-week health research at the U of A through Alberta Innovates' High School Youth Researcher Summer (HYRS). Applications close mid-March.

Paid research in biomedical and health sciences at UCalgary through Alberta Innovates' High School Youth Researcher Summer (HYRS), for Grade 11 students at central Alberta high schools. The award is a $3,000 stipend for six weeks from early July to mid-August. Applications for 2027 launch in January to February 2027.

Student applications open in early March and close in early April for the July-August placement. Paid summer research at the U of A for students underrepresented in STEM, ending with a celebration event in August.

Applications are accepted through the DiscoverE form, with separate intern streams in Edmonton and Ottawa. ELITE is a paid summer program for Black youth in innovation, technology and entrepreneurship.

A University of Alberta student group running science workshops for high school students in Edmonton and at Augustana in Camrose, plus a free summer camp. The Interdisciplinary Science Competition is its oldest event, alongside health sciences, engineering and computer science workshops, and the six-week STEM Potential Enrichment Camp runs over the summer. Dates are posted per event rather than on a fixed calendar, so the homepage often reads "no events at the moment" between cycles; check the events page instead.

Applications for SHAD 2027 open in mid-September and close in early January. Month-long STEAM program on a Canadian university campus: solve real-world problems in teams, live in residence, and build a cross-country network.

A 10-week program where teams of high school students, led by an undergraduate mentor, run their own research project on open-source data in areas like bioinformatics, public health and economics, using the R programming language. Teams present at a regional symposium, the best go on to a national one, and top manuscripts can be published after peer review. Applications for the 2026-27 program open this fall. There is a CA$80 program fee.

Applications for the 2027 program reopen in fall 2026. A one-week program where Indigenous high school students conduct research alongside university professors and graduate students at the U of A.

CWSF 2027 runs May 29 – June 5 in Hamilton. There is no direct application: Alberta students qualify by winning at their regional science fair, then present original research against roughly 400 finalists from across Canada.

Team registration for the 2026 season is closed. iGEM's High School Competition is entered as a school team under a teacher acting as PI, not by individual students; teams design a synthetic biology project across the season for the international jamboree.

This challenge is not currently running. STEM Fellowship lists no active Big Data & AI Challenge cycle. Teams previously produced a peer-reviewed manuscript from open-data and AI research, with a finale in Calgary.

National innovation challenge where youth teams design and prototype STEM solutions to real-world problems. Teams receive access to industry mentors, workshops, and MindFuel's Connect2Innovate platform. 13+ years running with 5,000+ alumni.

A hands-on research placement for high school students in a university lab. You are mentored one-on-one by a graduate student, help with their experiments, shadow the lab team, and attend lab meetings and seminars. In Alberta the host is the University of Calgary; UBC, Queen's, Guelph, York, TMU and two U of T campuses also host. Each university has its own application form on the REO page, and dates are set per host.

A student-run group in U of A engineering that brings free STEM project kits and mentoring to grades 5-12, building things like robotic arms and wind turbines.

The high-school stream is InSRA, a six-week paid Indigenous Summer Research Academy ($3,000 award, plus a $500 travel bursary) for students who have completed Grade 11, running alongside HYRS at ULethbridge. There is also a 3-week paid summer intern role for Gr 9+. Dates for the next cycle are not yet posted.

A paid Government of Alberta summer job for 16-18 year olds: seven weeks of forestry, wildfire and conservation work. Intake opens over the winter.

Two fully funded weeks at Perimeter Institute for Grade 11-12 students serious about theoretical physics, with travel, room and meals covered. Perimeter did not run ISSYP in 2024 and has not posted a 2026 or 2027 session, so check with Perimeter before planning on it.

Applications typically close in mid-May for the August session. Week-long dive into quantum information science and cryptography at IQC, University of Waterloo (formerly QCSYS), with lectures, labs and direct researcher access.

Applications open in late November and close in mid-April for the following summer. A free U of T engineering program: a July intensive on the St. George campus, followed by biweekly events from October through February.

Postponed: U of T states Med YSP is pushed to Summer 2027. The program runs hands-on medical modules (human physiology, microbiology) with labs, lectures and discussions for high school students, open to Canadian and international applicants.

Regional neuroscience knowledge competitions for high school students in Calgary and Edmonton. Winners advance to the national Brain Bee where competitors analyze brain tissue and patient diagnoses. Top finishers represent Canada internationally.

Online academic program where students work directly with university tutors to research and draft a university-level paper. Research tracks available in medicine, computer science, engineering, and more. Builds academic writing and independent research skills.

A national physics exam for senior high school students, written at your own school. Your teacher arranges it through the CAP provincial coordinator.

Global tech education program where teams of young women identify a community problem, conduct user research, and build a mobile app or AI solution. Alberta participants can work remotely or through local hubs. Teams pitch to a panel of tech industry judges.

Applications close in mid-March each year, and the 2026 round closed 13 March. Teams of high school students propose an experiment to run on a real particle-accelerator beamline at CERN, and winning teams travel to carry it out.

Global science and math research competition. Students research a complex concept in life sciences, physics, or mathematics and translate that research into an engaging explanatory video (max 2 min for the 2026 competition). Grand prize includes a $250,000 scholarship.

Fully funded scholarships for high school students to join scientific expeditions to the Arctic or Antarctic. Students conduct hands-on environmental and climate field research alongside polar scientists, Indigenous knowledge holders, and global youth peers.

Specialized summer math camps, research workshops, and advanced problem-solving seminars hosted in partnership with UAlberta and UCalgary. Exposes students to university-level mathematical research and connects them with professional mathematicians.

A one-day engineering and geoscience challenge where high school teams solve timed, hands-on problems. Regionals feed the provincial finals.

Fully-funded regional summits covering themes like Energy, Water, and Agriculture. High school teams attend expert workshops, conduct environmental field research, and develop action plans to implement back in their local communities.

National cyber defence competition for Grade 9-12 teams, running October to May. Your teacher registers the team between April and October, not students.

The national exam is written in early April, with a training camp at UBC Okanagan for those selected. The Canadian Biology Olympiad is the qualifying route toward Canada's International Biology Olympiad team.

The world's largest pre-college science competition. No direct application: you qualify through an affiliated regional fair. Travel funded if selected.

Applications open April 1 and close in early July, with decisions by August 31. A free online research program from the New York Academy of Sciences where students team up on industry-set challenges with a mentor.

Rigorous virtual research institute for high school students. Accepted students work one-on-one with university professors across disciplines, from neuroscience to computer science, to produce a peer-reviewed research paper over 8 weeks.

A day on a medical campus: hands-on health-science workshops and career panels with clinicians. Your school registers about six weeks ahead.

Environmental research and proposal competition. Students research a local watershed issue, write a detailed solution proposal, and compete for funding to implement their project in their community. Top Alberta entries advance to regional and national judging.

Enrol through your school counsellor rather than applying separately. Dual Credit lets Medicine Hat Public students take real post-secondary courses while in high school, earning 5 to 30-level high school credits plus 3 post-secondary credits per course.

Applications for the 2026-27 cohort are open now. TKS is a 10-month after-school program where students go deep on AI, biotech and robotics and build projects with companies; alumni have reached research labs and startups before 19.

Summer research applications are open now, and the signature Introduction to Quantum Computing course runs from October. Qubit by Qubit teaches quantum computing to high school students, taught by PhD researchers with Google Quantum AI.

Open only where your school or district has joined SSEP as a community. Those teams design flight experiments from September 1 to November 3, 2026, with community submissions to NCESSE by November 12 for Mission 22 to the International Space Station.

Registration opens in mid-March; the exam is written at your school on the first Thursday of May. A demanding open-ended physics exam from the University of Waterloo that rewards months of independent study.

Students research global food security, agricultural technology, and sustainability, then pitch solutions to real agricultural problems with input from industry mentors.

Heritage Fairs and Young Citizens are no longer listed by Historica Canada. They appear on neither the current nor the past programs page, and /heritagefairs returns a 404. Historica now runs the Citizenship Challenge, Heritage Minutes and The Memory Project.

Multidisciplinary engineering competition where teams use CAD and CAM software to research aerodynamics, design, and race miniature compressed-air powered F1 cars. Alberta teams actively compete at national championships. Builds skills in design, manufacturing, and project management.

Canada's largest hackathon: 36 hours of building at Waterloo with 1,000+ students, travel, food and lodging covered. Applications reopen next summer.

Two weeks of university engineering at U of T's St. George campus for Grades 10-12. A paid academy; applications open early March, early-bird round first.

Rigorous global entrepreneurship program where high schoolers form teams to conduct deep market research, prototype a digital or physical tech product, and pitch a fully functioning startup to a panel of investors. MIT-affiliated curriculum.

Design and submit an original Swift playground or iOS app to Apple. Open to under-18 high schoolers; winners get WWDC access and Apple developer tools.

Hackergal's national program for girls in Grades 9–12, built for the ones who have aged out of its Grades 6–9 hackathon. Ambassadors start Hackergal Clubs in their own school or community, run workshops, mentor newer ambassadors, and meet women working in tech, moving through four yearly stages from Role Model to Future-Ready Focus. Taking part also qualifies you for Hackergal's scholarship for graduating secondary students, which reopens in November 2026. The ambassador intake is closed at the moment with no reopening date posted.

Specialized enrichment bootcamps run by UAlberta's Computing Science department focusing on applying machine learning algorithms to game design and logic. Students explore AI concepts through hands-on programming projects.

These are childrens camps. Rattlers Athletics and the Child Development Centre run them for ages 6-17, with much of the programming aimed at elementary ages rather than senior high school research.

Registration opens in the fall, with regional fairs held between February and April. Winning at this regional fair is the only route to the Canada-Wide Science Fair for students in southeastern Alberta.

Registration is closed. UCalgary states the camp form "is no longer available" while the service is being updated. Active Living runs multi-sport and recreation summer camps on campus; sign up for their notification list for the next intake.

Exposure to Olympic-level sports science, biometric tracking, and physiological recovery research at state-of-the-art testing facilities used by Canada's national athletes. Students learn how elite performance data is collected and analyzed.

High-level, day-long symposiums run by UAlberta and UCalgary LTS chapters on niche topics like stem cell research, space exploration, and AI ethics. Distinct from the Space Lab/Tomatosphere citizen science programs; these are lecture and lab-based days for high schoolers.

Open to Albertans interested in data science and the environment. Students analyze massive open-source data sets relating to marine biology, ocean chemistry, and climate from ONC's global sensor network. Virtual participation accessible from anywhere in Canada.

The camp runs the last week of July, with registration closing in mid-July. A five-day MacEwan design camp covering graphic design, app design, illustration, photography and videography.

For students aged 16+: Pre-College is a four-week summer immersive covering both Fine Art and Design at university level, and Arts-Bridge is a shorter two-week introduction for students who cannot commit to the full month.

Bootcamps and dual-credit courses focusing on the intersection of agriculture, drone telemetry, precision farming, and data science. Students use Olds College's smart farm and tech facilities.

Applications for Forum 2027 open soon, for sessions running February 7-12, February 28 - March 5, and April 18-23, 2027. Three hundred students aged 15-18 spend a week in Ottawa meeting MPs and Senators; travel, meals and accommodation are covered, with bursaries against the $995 fee.

A funded reciprocal exchange that twins a group of Alberta youth with a group from another province or territory, each hosting the other for at least five days. Groups plan their own travel, budget, itinerary and community project. Applications are made by a group leader, so you need a teacher or community organizer to run it.

Registration for the regional qualifiers opens in early January. Alberta students compete in trades and technology contests at regionals, with winners advancing to the provincial competition and on to Skills Canada nationals.

The route to Team Canada at the International Physics Olympiad. Students qualify by writing the CAP High School Prize Exam (usually mid-April), and top scorers are invited to the national training camp at UBC in May, where the team is selected. High scorers who miss the May camp can join the online Canadian Junior Physics Olympiad camp in August. Talk to your physics teacher, since schools are notified each spring.

National geography competition and Canada's route to the International Geography Olympiad. Levels 1 and 2 run through classroom and school rounds. Level 3 is the senior stream: a multimedia test open to everyone who signs up, narrowing to the top 20 for a written test, the top 10 for a fieldwork test, then six interviews and four Team Canada spots. Free to join, and a guardian can supervise if your school does not take part.

Runs as a full-time summer course from late July to late August. The UCalgary Bioengineering Summer Institute gives high school students lab exposure to biomedical engineering ahead of a Schulich application.

The longest standing Model UN conference for high school students in Alberta, run by the UCalgary political science department. Delegates represent countries across UN and NATO committees for two days, researching a national position, negotiating with blocs and drafting resolutions under formal debate rules. Good preparation for political science, law and international relations programs. The registration link goes live once the department announces the next conference date, so check the page in the fall.

The Alberta Youth Parliament website is currently down. abyp.ca shows only an "under construction" placeholder, with no session dates or application details posted. TUXIS Parliament has historically run a winter sitting for youth delegates.

Part I is written in November and Part II in early February; your school registers you. The Alberta High School Mathematics Competition is the province's longest-running math contest, run by the U of A.

A one-hour, 30 question physics contest that opened to the rest of Canada in 2026, when OAPT extended its invitation beyond Ontario schools. Questions run from easy to difficult and reward physical intuition rather than formula memorization, which makes it a useful bridge between Physics 20 and the far harder CAP Prize Exam. Free to enter and non-programmable calculators are allowed. The 2026 contest ran May 20; a teacher can register the school up to a week before contest day.

Your teacher registers the school by late February; the exam is written between mid-March and early April. A 40-question multiple-choice physics contest run by the American Association of Physics Teachers, open to schools worldwide.

Apply through your local Rotary club. Selection is run by clubs, not centrally, so ask yours about timing. Since 1951 the program has brought 150+ students aged 16-18 to Ottawa for four days of meetings with parliamentarians, plus access to three $1,000 scholarships.

A fully funded, bilingual parliamentary simulation on Parliament Hill run by CIVIX, the civic education charity behind Student Vote. Delegates take part in legislative debate, committee work and question period. The inaugural session ran November 6 to 10, 2025 with 75 delegates, the first youth parliament on the Hill in more than four decades. CIVIX had not announced a second session as of August 2026, so email youthparliament@civix.ca before counting on it. This is a new program and is unrelated to the 1980s parliament of the same name, which no longer runs.

Register through the Community Futures office in your area. YETI is a summer business-training program for senior high school students in the Capital Region: you launch a real business over the summer with startup funding and mentorship, and may earn high school credit.

The provincial student leadership conference, run since 1988 by a volunteer association of student council advisors and hosted by a different Alberta school every year. Three days of keynote speakers, around 14 breakout sessions, a service project and a dance, built around meeting student leaders from across the province. Useful for building a community leadership record rather than a competitive one. ASLC 2026 ran May 1 to 3 at École Olds High School; the 2027 host had not been announced as of August 2026. Ask your student council advisor to enter a delegation.

A global talent program that names 100 Global Winners a year and backs them for life. Winners get a four-year post-secondary scholarship covering tuition and a living stipend, awarded on need and only where other financial aid does not already cover it, plus a fully funded residential summit, a laptop or tablet, and the ability to apply for funding for their own projects later on. It suits students who already run something that serves other people rather than students with a strong report card alone. Check the status before you plan around it: the most recent cohort announced on the Rise site is 2024, and as of August 2026 the apply subdomain redirects to the homepage with no open cycle posted.

Application portals open September 14, 2026 for the 2027 sessions. Explore is a federally funded bursary covering tuition, accommodation and meals for a spring or summer French immersion session in another province, for students aged 16 and up.

Forty students are chosen from across Canada each year to work on the floor of the House of Commons while doing their first year of university in Ottawa. Pages carry documents and messages during sittings, work directly around Members of Parliament and see federal legislation as it happens, which is experience almost nothing else at that age can match. Recruitment runs on a long cycle: applications for the 2027 to 2028 cohort open in September 2026 and close in November 2026, selections finish in March 2027 and offers go out at the end of April 2027. You apply in your Grade 12 year, so the timing lines up with university applications.

A fully funded week in Belgium and France studying Canada's role in the First World War on the ground, visiting battlefields, cemeteries and museums with a national cohort of students. It rewards community service and historical interest rather than marks, and it carries real weight on a scholarship application later. The 2026 journey ran April 3 to 11 and its application window was October 21 to November 25, 2025. The next cycle had not been posted as of August 2026, so watch the page from mid-October.

The qualifying fair for Edmonton students heading to the Canada-Wide Science Fair. The 2026 edition ran March 14 to 15 with registration open January 9 to February 28; the council had not posted 2027 dates when this was checked, so expect the same late-winter shape.

One fair day at Red Deer Polytechnic on March 20, 2027, with setup the evening before. A $10 entry fee applies per project, payable on or after the fair, and up to six of the top senior projects advance to the Canada-Wide Science Fair. Registration had not reopened when this was checked.

Two events in one weekend: the Lethbridge Regional Science Fair and the Science Olympics, a same-day design and build competition. Top projects in grades 7 to 12 are invited to the Canada-Wide Science Fair. The 2026 edition ran April 10 to 11; SATC had not posted 2027 dates when this was checked.

Fort McMurray's qualifying fair, judged on a Friday with public viewing and awards the Saturday after. Sponsors cover the cost so entry is free to students, and finalists from the junior, intermediate and senior pools advance to the Canada-Wide Science Fair. The 2026 judging ran March 27.

The qualifying fair for northwest Alberta, and the route to the Canada-Wide Science Fair for students around Peace River, Slave Lake and Valleyview. The 42nd fair ran March 25, 2026 with registration closing March 10, and five finalists went on to nationals in Edmonton. Organisers have said they expect a 2027 fair but had not posted its dates when this was checked.

A three-day environmental science competition. Teams of five work through field stations and written tests in aquatic ecology, forestry, soils and land use, wildlife and a current issue, then give an oral presentation. The winning team represents Alberta at the international NCF-Envirothon.

Linguistics puzzles: work out how an unfamiliar language works from a handful of examples, no prior linguistics needed. The 2027 Open Round is January 28, 2027. The top four Anglophone Canadian students in the invitational round represent Canada at the International Linguistics Olympiad.

A national biology exam written online each April, covering biochemistry, cells, metabolism and genetics at a senior high school level. Schools with five or more students are also ranked as teams.

A weekend leadership conference for 70 to 100 high school students, held every May, with workshops and networking with other young leaders. There is no cost to attend: a local Rotary club sponsors each delegate. Contact a Rotary club near you, or register as an independent delegate.

A four-day leadership camp at Camp Nakamun with workshops and speakers on interpersonal growth, communication and community building, on a challenge-by-choice basis. The 2026 camp ran April 30 to May 3. Local Rotary clubs sponsor students; ask a club near you about covering the fee.

A free online programming contest with four divisions, Bronze to Platinum: you start in Bronze and a strong score promotes you. Canadians can compete in every division, making it good practice alongside the Canadian Computing Competition. The 2025–26 season ran three contests from January to February plus a proctored US Open in March; 2026–27 dates are not yet posted.

A residential summer program in university-level mathematics, where students choose their own classes and work on problems with mathematicians. It is free for Canadian families with household incomes under $100,000 USD, with need-based aid above that; aid never affects admission. Dates and location for 2027 are announced in December.

A paid part-time job on the floor of the Alberta Legislature: pages deliver documents to MLAs during sittings, help at public events, and take part in professional development and a speech competition. Recruitment runs each spring; apply with a cover letter, résumé, latest report card, and letters of support from a parent and your school.

Calgary's youth council, running since 1992: members meet weekly in subcommittees on civic engagement, careers, health and current issues, hear from guest speakers, meet city officials and plan youth-led events. The 2025–26 council drew from 16 schools across 11 wards. Applications open each fall.

Six weeks of deep work in number theory with about 80 high school students and 25 undergraduate counsellors, built around proving results yourself. Applications for 2027 close at the end of February 2027. Aid for Canadian students is case by case, and every applicant can compete for the full-scholarship Breakout Fellowship.

A six-week residential summer of number theory built on proving everything yourself, at Ohio State or Indiana University. About 60 first-year students per site are admitted, roughly 15% of applicants. The 2026 deadline was March 8; the program aims to fund every admitted student who needs aid, though aid for international students is limited.

Youth volunteers who give Alberta Children's Hospital a youth voice on its programs and services, through consultations and meetings with staff. Recruitment runs each year from June 1 to September 7; apply through the hospital's volunteer portal.

Former patients and their siblings advise the Stollery and Alberta youth health care on programs, policies and platforms. Interviews run through the summer for a September start; apply through the hospital's MyImpact page.

One of Canada's largest high school Model UN conferences, open to delegations from any province. A sponsor teacher registers the school first, then delegates sign up; early pricing runs to October 25 and registration closes when the conference fills. Bursaries can cover up to the full fee.

A 24-hour in-person hackathon at UCalgary where teams build a project from scratch. High school students compete in a separate prize tier with first-year university students, so you are not up against senior engineers. Free to enter; the 2027 event has not been posted yet.

The national student leadership conference, held since 1985 in a different province each year. Registration fills fast: for 2026 it opened April 21 and was full the same afternoon, with a waitlist after that. Ask your student council advisor to register a delegation.

Canada's high school economics competition and the qualifier for the International Economics Olympiad, covering economics, finance and business case analysis. Five students go to the International Economics Olympiad and five to the Economics Olympiad International Final Round. Registration for 2027 opens in January.

Canada's astronomy olympiad: solve around six astrophysics theory problems within a set window and send in your solutions. Top scorers go to a national training camp and a team selection test for Canada's team at the International Olympiad on Astronomy and Astrophysics.

A philosophy essay contest for Canadian high school students: answer one of three questions in at most 1,200 words. Each essay is read blind by a high school teacher and a U of T philosophy professor. The 2026 deadline has passed; watch the page for the 2027 questions.

The world's oldest international schools writing competition, run since 1883. Write up to 1,000 words on the year's theme; one winner is chosen from each Commonwealth region, including the Americas, and every entrant receives a Gold, Silver, Bronze or Participation certificate. The 2026 deadline was April 30.

Design a free-orbiting space settlement anywhere in the solar system, from structure to how people live there. More than 29,000 students from 31 countries entered in 2026. Top entrants can present at the International Space Development Conference (2027: May 27–30).

Hands-on week-long camps at SAIT in trades and technology: welding, construction, automotive and aviation mechanics, electronics, engineering, computers and media arts, plus career-skills camps for high school students. Each week has its own registration deadline.

Youth volunteers at the Calgary Zoo help with visitor engagement, summer camps, ZOOLIGHTS and Easter events (not with the animals). Apply online, then attend a group interview, orientation and training, and a 20-hour shadowing period.

A residential research summer in astrophysics (tracking a near-Earth asteroid), biochemistry, bacterial genomics or cell biology, with about 700 students a year and no grades or tests. Admission is need-blind. Applications for 2027 open around the end of December 2026; the 2026 international deadline was January 29, earlier than the US one.

A multiple-choice math contest written the same day at centres across Canada, with its own paper for grades 11–12. The 2026 contest ran Sunday, March 22, with registration closing February 23 (early-bird price to February 9). Grade 11 and 12 students with strong results over several years can earn awards of up to $1,000.

A free weekly math enrichment program run by Waterloo's CEMC, exploring topics beyond the curriculum through short lessons and problem solving. The Grade 9/10 online section meets Wednesday or Thursday evenings (Eastern Time, so late afternoon in Alberta). Register September 10–28, 2026.

Free virtual summer programs from Girls Who Code Canada, set up to close the gender gap in technology. The Summer Immersion Program runs two weeks of live classes, Monday to Friday, with partner events; Pathways is a self-paced six-week course in web development, cybersecurity, data science or artificial intelligence.

Youth volunteers at Edmonton's aviation museum work as docents, visitor representatives and historical interpreters alongside the programming and visitor services teams: museum and public-speaking experience with a focus on aviation history.

A French-language youth parliament held in the Alberta Legislature chamber: debate bills written by and for youth as a deputy, or take part as a page, lobbyist or journalist (the last two count toward the Leadership 15-3 course). Registration details for 2027 are not yet posted; contact FJA.

A paid summer job of 6 to 16 weeks, with Rupertsland Institute subsidizing part of the wage, for Métis students heading back to school in the fall. Call 1-888-48-MÉTIS (1-888-486-8847) to confirm the current intake and register.

An eight-week, in-person summer placement in health data science and health informatics research, matched to a Centre for Health Informatics faculty member by your interests. The 2026 round opened December 15, 2025 and closed January 5, 2026; expect the same winter window for summer 2027.

A free team competition built on a real client case: research, build a long-term strategy in the Wharton Investment Simulator, and submit four deliverables from October to December. Teams are judged on the strategy and how well they defend it, not on portfolio returns. Registration for 2026–27 closed September 11, 2026; the next season opens each August.

A free online team math contest held every year since 2003: pick a start time in the ten-day window and solve 30 problems ranging from easy to extremely hard. In 2025, more than 12,000 students on 4,000 teams from 80 countries took part.

A free capture-the-flag hacking competition from Carnegie Mellon: solve security puzzles in cryptography, web exploitation, forensics and reverse engineering. The picoGym practice site runs year-round with past challenges and guided lessons, so you can start well before the spring competition.

An international essay prize in ten subjects: economics, history, international relations, law, philosophy, politics, psychology, public policy, science and technology, and theology, with three questions each. The 2026 cycle opened registration February 2, closed it March 31, and took essays until May 31. Free at the standard deadline.

The long-running North American awards for teen art and writing, with more than 100,000 entries a year across art and writing categories. The 2027 Awards open October 1, 2026, with regional deadlines from early December to early January; Canadian students are placed in an art region and a writing region by their postal code.

Give a 5–7 minute speech on one of five agriculture, agri-tech or agri-food topics set each year. In 2026, entries ran February 5 to June 19, preliminaries were held June 27 and July 10, and the top four from each division advanced to the July 11 final at the Stampede, with a travel credit to the national final.

A free programming contest with a dedicated high school division: mostly approachable problems with a few harder ones, solved in C++, Python, Java, C, Kotlin, Rust or Haskell. Lunch is provided on site. The 2026 contest ran March 7, with registration closing two days before.

A free team programming contest run by UCalgary's Competitive Programming Club, open to Calgary high school students as well as university students, with a second division for newer competitors. Register on Eventbrite; the 2026 contest ran March 28 and has sold out in past years.

Remembrance-themed contests in three forms: a poster, an original essay or poem, or a video. Poster and literary entries are judged at the branch, then provincial, then national level; video entries go online from September 1 to December 15, 2026. Ask your nearest Legion branch for its poster and literary deadline.

Youth Science Canada's online regional fair for students with no regional fair near them, which covers much of rural Alberta outside the seven regional fairs. Present a science or engineering project virtually, the same way regional fairs lead toward the Canada-Wide Science Fair.

Work on a conservation action project with a mentor, do field studies with professionals and present your work at a showcase. The 2026 cohort's applications opened April 1, with a bootcamp August 22–23 and a showcase December 5; expect the next intake to open in spring 2027.

First-year-level summer courses and mini schools taught by UBC instructors, without exams, in areas like business and economics, engineering and technology, health and life sciences, media and fine arts, history, law and politics. On-campus students add workshops and social activities; everyone gets a letter of completion.

An international team contest where high school students pick one of several open-ended real-world problems, build a mathematical model and write up their solution as a report. Teams have 14 consecutive days in the contest window to download the problem, work on it and submit electronically, under a teacher advisor.

Students design an experiment small enough to fit in a 4 cm or 10 cm cube and propose it for flight. Selected experiments fly on a NASA sounding rocket or scientific balloon and come back for analysis. Registration for the 2027 missions opens November 9, 2026; students from outside the US can fly on the balloon missions.

An intensive residential program where about 80 high school students learn Wolfram Language and computational thinking, then complete an original research project with a mentor. Applications for 2026 closed in March; the 2027 dates and deadlines have not been posted yet. Admission is need-blind.

A national improv theatre program for high school teams. Teams of up to eight practise through the school year with trainer support, compete at one of 15 regional tournaments, and top teams go to the national festival in Ottawa. In Alberta the tournament is run by Rapid Fire Theatre, which handles registration.

Live online problem-solving courses for strong math students, with a 90-minute lecture and an hour of problem solving each weekday for three weeks. Students choose from three sessions and can take one, two or all three. The 2027 application rounds have not opened; earlier rounds cost less and get better course choice.

A free online math competition in three rounds: a qualification round, a pre-final round and a final. Problems test creative problem solving rather than advanced curriculum, and there are separate categories for younger high school students, senior high school students and adults, with certificates and over US$1,500 in prizes.

A paid summer on Western University's severe storms team. The hail internship is based in Olds, Alberta and chases hailstorms to collect data; flights and housing in Olds are covered. High school interns get the same $10,000 as university interns. The 2026 round opened December 1, 2025 and closed January 26, 2026, with a required virtual info session in January.

A paid summer in Sunnybrook's focused ultrasound labs in Toronto, helping with engineering, experiments and programming for medical devices that treat the body with sound. Students from outside Toronto can apply if they can work in Canada and find their own place to stay. The 2026 deadline was February 20, with a cover letter, resume, transcript and teacher evaluation.

A paid summer research job at SickKids in Toronto, open to students in their last year of high school who start post-secondary in the fall. You work on a project under a SickKids researcher, who must supervise you, and present at the August symposium. If you have not heard back by early April, the position has likely been filled.

A teacher and a group of students design their own experiment and run it on a beamline at Canada's synchrotron in Saskatoon, then present what they found. Students lead the project with mentors from the Light Source. The teacher applies, not the student, so show this to a science teacher. The spring 2026 call closed April 1, and the next call opens in October 2026.

Six weeks of hands-on research at the University of Lethbridge for Indigenous students after Grade 11, in areas from Indigenous Studies and art to genetics, neuroscience and bioengineering, ending in a poster presentation. It runs alongside the HYRS program on campus. Apply with a short essay and a reference from a teacher or community member. The 2024 program ran July 5 to August 16; newer dates are not posted yet.

A free week of field ornithology at an Alberta bird observatory: bird banding, identification, aging and sexing birds, migration monitoring and MAPS survey work, plus bats and butterflies. Food, field trips and instruction are covered; you get yourself to the station and bring a tent and sleeping bag (tents can be borrowed). In 2026 the workshop ran August 8 to 14 and applications closed April 30.

A free online summer research program where high school students work on a real project with a university mentor, in neuroscience, biology, computer science, electrical engineering or chemistry. It uses open data and published papers, so no lab is needed, and ends with students presenting what they found. Student applications for 2026 are closed; apply again for next summer.

A paid six-week summer internship in a SickKids research lab in Toronto for Black, Filipino and Indigenous high school students. Biology and chemistry help but are not required. You need to be at the lab in person every day. The 2026 program ran July 6 to August 14 and applications have closed; check the Kids Science page for the next round.

A paid eight-week summer internship working full time with a biomedical research group at the Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute in Toronto. The page sets no rule on where you live, but the work is in person at Mount Sinai or Hennick Bridgepoint Hospital. Places are very competitive. Applications for summer 2026 have closed; a one-week March Break placement also runs.

A free summer program in the physical sciences run by Queen's University's astroparticle physics institute, with an online group for students outside Kingston. Over twelve afternoons you practise asking questions, forming hypotheses, experimenting and analysing data in astronomy, chemistry and particle physics, and students can join their instructors' research projects before presenting at the end. Sessions run 1:30 to 4:30 PM Eastern, which is 11:30 to 2:30 in Alberta. Apply with a one-page letter and a teacher's letter of support; the 2026 deadline was in May.

A paid summer program at CFB Wainwright for Indigenous youth from Western Canada that combines basic military training with cultural teachings led by Elders. You learn drill, navigation, first aid and weapons handling, and finish with the Army Reserve Basic Military Qualification. After it you can stay in the Forces or be released, and some high schools count the time as career experience credits. The Forces pay you and cover travel, food and lodging. Applications usually close at the end of April. The 2026 course, its 37th year, graduated 64 people.

Calgary's senior youth orchestra, run by the Mount Royal University Conservatory. Auditions are held once a year, in person in late May and June, and adjudicated by the music director. New players bring two contrasting pieces plus scales, and returning players also prepare orchestral excerpts. Private lessons are strongly recommended. The 2026-27 season has no harp part.

Edmonton's youth orchestra has two ensembles, Intermediate and Senior, placed by skill. You audition by video with a 2 to 5 minute piece with contrasting sections, uploaded as an unlisted YouTube video; no accompanist needed. For the 2026-27 season submissions closed May 29, 2026 with results by the end of June. Members pay a membership fee by the first September rehearsal, and scholarships and bursaries are available.

A free five-week humanities seminar in the US: university-level reading, writing and discussion with a small group. There are two tracks, TASS-CBS and TASS-AOS, and you apply to one. Telluride covers tuition, books, room and board and field trips, but does not help with visas. International students, Canadians included, can only apply in Grade 10. The 2026 deadline was December 3, 2025, so expect the next one in early December.

A national STEM contest where a class or club uses science and technology to tackle a problem in its own community. Your teacher enters by answering three short questions: the local challenge, your STEM solution, and how it will last. Finalists build out their projects. Prizes are Samsung technology vouchers for the school, up to $50,000 for first place. The 2026 entry window was January 12 to February 27.

A free, student-run team physics competition with olympiad-level problems. Since 2020 it has drawn more than 10,000 competitors from over 80 countries. The 2026 contest was one round over a weekend, with short-answer, long-answer and simulation experiment problems. Past papers, solutions and standings are posted on the site, which makes it good practice for the Canadian Physics Olympiad.

A five-day look at police work for 40 high school students per session. You do fitness training, team building and leadership work, plus lectures and scenarios with units like Canine, Robbery, Air 1, Traffic and Forensics. In 2026 there was a spring session (March 30 to April 2) and a summer session (July 27 to 31), with applications closing February 27. Expect a similar schedule next year.

A one-day academy where Grade 12 students put on a mock police uniform and duty belt, get paired with an officer mentor, and work through more than 20 realistic scenarios such as wellness checks, vehicle stops and noise complaints. It also covers crime scene analysis, collision reconstruction and surveillance. Breakfast and lunch are provided. In 2026 it ran May 13 and applications closed April 24; you apply by emailing the form.

A free cadet program run by the Calgary Police Service. Cadets meet Thursday evenings from 5:45 to 9:15, September to May, and join weekend exercises and volunteer work. Over five levels they build leadership, fitness, first aid and marksmanship skills. Uniforms and equipment are provided. Applications for the next September intake open November 1 and close March 31, so a Grade 10 student who is still 16 can join.

A music education and performance program in which youth aged 16 to 21 rehearse all year and perform through the 10 days of the Stampede. Rehearsals are Tuesday evenings plus one full band-camp weekend a month, with a week of full-day rehearsals right before Stampede. Auditions for the 2026-27 season were June 5 to 7, 2026 on Stampede Park. Members pay an annual fee for uniforms, equipment, instruction and local travel; tours cost extra, and there is fundraising help.

The Calgary Stampede's performing arts school, whose members sing and dance in the Grandstand Show every July. Seniors (15 to 21) train 12 to 15 hours a week on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and some Sundays, and attendance is mandatory. Tuition is $2,100 a year plus a one-time fee for new members, with financial help and payment plans. Audition dates for 2027-28 are not posted yet.

Pre-professional theatre training at the Citadel in Edmonton for 16 to 21 year olds planning on theatre school or a theatre career. One cohort trains as actors and the other in production (tech, design and stage management). Local theatre professionals teach, and the season ends with a spring production in the Rice Theatre. Submissions for 2026-27 are closed; 2027-28 audition details come later.

A national classical music competition with a first round run by local chapters. Albertans audition with the Calgary Chapter, which also takes Edmonton candidates. Top performers go to the national final in Montreal (July 2 to 10 in 2026), where category winners are invited to play with a Canadian orchestra and scholarships are awarded. Each chapter sets its own registration deadline and fee, so contact the Calgary Chapter directly.

Canada's largest high school hackathon, held at the University of Waterloo with 200+ students building tech projects over a weekend. It is free, with meals and swag provided by sponsors, and beginners are welcome. The site does not mention travel funding, so an Alberta student would pay their own way to Ontario. JAMHacks 10 is over and JAMHacks 11 dates are not posted yet.

Alberta's provincial honour band for high school and university players. The ensemble meets for one weekend with a guest conductor of national or international standing and ends with a concert. Admission is by individual audition: submit the questionnaire and a recording. Auditions have opened September 3 and closed December 1. There is a participation fee of $275.

Edmonton's competitive music and speech arts festival, formerly the Edmonton Kiwanis Music Festival, with over 2,500 performances a year. You perform for an adjudicator, solo or in a group, and can enter special scholarship classes. It runs under Alberta Music Festival Association standards. Registration for 2026 closed February 5, so expect a similar deadline for 2027.

Medicine Hat's competitive music festival, where students perform for an adjudicator, from soloists to choirs, orchestras and musical theatre. It is a member of the Alberta Music Festival Association, so strong performers can be recommended on to the provincial festival. The 2027 festival runs March 8 to 21. For the 2025 festival, registration ran November 11 to January 16, so expect a similar window.

Central Alberta's competitive performing arts festival, with more than 1,000 student performers. You perform for an adjudicator and can be recommended on to the Alberta provincial festival; in 2026 two Red Deer entries took first place in their provincial classes. The 2027 festival runs April 13 to 15 at Red Deer Polytechnic and April 26 to May 1 at Sunnybrook United Church. Registration details for 2027 are not posted yet.

The provincial finals for Alberta's local music festivals. You cannot enter directly: first win a recommendation at your local member festival, then compete for provincial standings and scholarships. Alberta's top provincial competitors can go on to the Canada West Performing Arts Festival, which is in Victoria, BC on July 22 to 24, 2027.

Alberta's high school one-act play festival. Your school's drama program performs a one-act play at its zone festival in April, and the plays chosen there go to the provincial festival. The provincial festival is a celebration rather than a competition, though schools are recognized and awarded. The 2026 provincial festival was May 7 to 9 at the University of Lethbridge. Ask your drama teacher to enter.

A three-week pre-professional ballet intensive at Alberta Ballet School in Calgary. Classes include ballet, pointe, pas de deux for some levels, repertoire, variations, contemporary and character dance, plus conditioning. Students in Grades 9 to 12 audition as seniors. Out-of-town students can live in residence at Mount Royal University, with supervised social activities. There are two 2027 sessions.

Build a satellite the size of a pop can with a small computer and sensors, and fly it. Teams of up to six get a free CanSat kit by mail and follow tutorials over the fall and winter. In spring, Beginner teams' CanSats are dropped from a drone, while Advanced teams travel to Lethbridge to launch theirs by rocket to about 1 km and transmit live data. The top Advanced team represents Canada at the European Space Agency's CanSat event in the Netherlands. Registration for the 2026-27 challenge is open now.

Canada's high school quiz competition, running since 1966. Teams of four buzz in on fast trivia questions across every subject. Alberta holds a provincial tournament each spring: about 216 students played at Paul Kane High School on April 18, 2026, and the winners went to the national championship in May. Ask a teacher whether your school has a team, or to start one.

An overnight filmmaking camp where you go from brainstorming and writing a screenplay to screening a finished film in a week. Professional instructors teach cinematography, directing, editing, sound and acting. The 2026 camp ran July 12 to 17 and is full; 2027 dates are not posted on the camp page yet. YouthWrite offers scholarships, so ask about financial help.

A summer camp where you shadow healthcare workers in areas like nursing, laboratory and pharmacy, meet people across the professions, and work through patient simulation scenarios. Before starting you complete training modules, watch privacy and security videos and sign a confidentiality agreement. It costs $40 a day, with scholarships available. Applications for 2026 have closed; details for 2027 are posted June 1, 2027.

A day at UCalgary's engineering school aimed at high school girls: explore engineering majors and minors, meet student mentors and alumni, and hear about programs like the Bioengineering Summer Institute. Teachers register their school. The 2026 event was February 19; the 2027 date is not posted yet.

A free four-day leadership camp run by Rotary. You spend a long weekend on team activities, outdoor challenges and workshops on confidence, communication and goal setting, led by trained counsellors and peer leaders, many of them past campers. Grades do not matter. A local Rotary club sponsors you and covers the $625 cost, including meals and lodging, and arranges your ride. The southern Alberta camp is May 7 to 10, 2027; clubs confirm spots by March 31 and it fills quickly.