<p>Recommendations for a good summer program in the sciences for a science-leaning sophomore girl who's looking for hands-on research, rather than classroom lectures?</p>
<p><a href="http://www.summerscience.org/home/index.php%5B/url%5D">http://www.summerscience.org/home/index.php</a></p>
<p><strong>at least 15 years old</strong></p>
<p>also: Rockefeller Summer
<a href="http://www.rockefeller.edu/outreach/%5B/url%5D">http://www.rockefeller.edu/outreach/</a></p>
<p>If you're interested in math at all, I wholeheartedly recommend the Hampshire College Summer Studies in Mathematics. You won't exactly get hands-on research...but if there's anything FARTHER from "classroom lectures," I haven't heard of it. The co-director of the program says, "Our faculty tend not to act like grown-ups in the way that most teachers do." It's a rather life-changing experience.</p>
<p>Check out Smith's program - my D loved it several years ago. I am not sure about the hands-on research though. I do know that there are options for what specific programs to elect.
<a href="http://www.smith.edu/summerprograms/ssep/%5B/url%5D">http://www.smith.edu/summerprograms/ssep/</a>
The days were filled with science classes, and in the evening there were a variety of options, from drama classes held on the dock by the campus pond, to swing dancing in town, etc. Weekends included such options as outings to Tanglewood, hikes, etc.</p>
<p>Warning: After this experience D could not find another college that compared to Smith, despite our many campus visits.</p>
<p>jyber, that sounds AWFULLY like HCSSiM. Heh. (Also, a rather excellent Smith prof is the co-director.)</p>
<p>I second jyber's recommendation of the SSEP program at Smith. My D did the 4 week program between her jr and sr years. It's all hands on projects working with Smith profs or visiting profs. You choose 2 two-week courses that are enrichment oriented, not necessarily accelerating. My D took an astronomy class which she found OK, but the chemistry of plastics course she chose was a blast (literally). Several field trips were taken during the 4 weeks, both for the courses and for entertainment. There are 100 girls enrolled in the program and it is a bit spendy. D used the program to figure out if she really was a science nerd and if she would like a womens college. She came out with a resounding yes to the former and a maybe to the latter. She's now a senior chem major at Carleton and loving the hands-on and cooperative learning emphasis there.</p>
<p>Lots of info. on the following Science Service site:</p>
<p><a href="http://www.sciserv.org/stp/%5B/url%5D">http://www.sciserv.org/stp/</a></p>
<p>Also....if there is a particular college, or colleges, you're interested in, you can go to their website and search for something like "Science Research for High School Students". </p>
<p>Here's one of the programs that comes up when searching on the University of Michigan site:</p>
<p><a href="http://www.math.lsa.umich.edu/mmss/%5B/url%5D">http://www.math.lsa.umich.edu/mmss/</a></p>
<p>WTP - Women's Technology Program</p>
<p>One fo my friends sent her too clever daughters to Explo <a href="http://www.explo.org/%5B/url%5D">http://www.explo.org/</a></p>
<p>My D attended the Young Scholars Program at UC Davis. 6 week residential program. During the first two weeks, the kids work 1 0n 1 in their lab 3 days a week. For the rest of the 4 week program, they work 5 days a week.</p>
<p>As a cute touch, she worked in the same lab that her dear ole dad worked in to get his PhD. </p>
<p><a href="http://ysp.ucdavis.edu/%5B/url%5D">http://ysp.ucdavis.edu/</a></p>
<p>GREAT recs. Thanks, everyone!</p>
<p>MIT's WTP is a hands-on engineering crash course, not science research. It's a great program, but I don't think it's what the OP is asking for.</p>
<p>MIT's RSI (Research Science Institute) program, for students finishing their junior year of high school, sounds right up her alley, though. :)</p>
<p><a href="http://web.mit.edu/rsi/www/%5B/url%5D">http://web.mit.edu/rsi/www/</a></p>
<p>University of Illinois has a Science and Engineering camp for girls that seems to be of great quality. My daughter attended in middle school so I don't know about the offerings for upper grades--but it definitely was hands on and You Go Girl in it's approach.</p>
<p>Check out the search engine at <a href="http://www.engineeringk12.org%5B/url%5D">http://www.engineeringk12.org</a> (click on Outreach). You can search for science, math, or technology programs and limit the returns to regions, target audience, etc.</p>
<p>Duke's TIP program offers some good courses. If she REALLY wants hands on learning, she should check out the marine lab. It's a fantastic place to spend the summer. The accomodations are pretty nice, and the food is great. :) TIP also offers a biology program in Costa Rica, astronomy/physics in NC, and geology/ecology in VA. </p>
<p>The NIH offers summer internships to high school students.</p>
<p>NJ Gov School would be a good program to check out for the summer after junior year.</p>
<p>More on the Smith program:</p>
<p>Cornell University's CURIE academy - one week on campus doing research and learning about engineering</p>
<p>The C-Tech is a good one which D1 did, but I believe its for VA residents only:</p>
<p><a href="http://www.stem.vt.edu/information.asp?fc=4%5B/url%5D">http://www.stem.vt.edu/information.asp?fc=4</a></p>
<p>since the smith contingent has already talked about the ssep, which i've heard is great, thought i'd throw in a plug for cty/caa (i never did their science classes, but they seem awesome and i had a great time there in my 3 years of camp). </p>
<p>also, this isn't particularly girl-oriented, but SUNY Stony Brook has a polymer lab that takes high school students. It's not really a camp, per se, and I think a rising junior would have to be pretty independent and mature to do it, but the lab does a great job of producing intel and siemens-westinghouse finalists. My sister researched there a few years ago and had a really interesting project--it was HARD work, but she learned a lot (including the fact that she doesn't want to work in a lab for a living) and I think it was a big help for her in the college admissions process (she got into a really good BA/MD joint degree program, with scholarships). polymer.matscieng.sunysb.edu/highschool.htm is the web site.</p>