<p>Like the title suggests, I have a freshman daughter who's really interested in doing future research in biology or chemistry.
She's in all the advanced classes she can take at the moment:
-Honor Biology, H Chem, Honors Algebra II/Trig, Honors French II, SS 9 (school offers no honors till 10th), and English 9.
Our high school is a competitive suburban, with many kids being sent to top schools every year. </p>
<p>Recently, she's been telling me how she feels that school has made science less 'fun' for her, and as a chemist myself, I really want her to enjoy science.</p>
<p>Do any of you parents have any suggestions for some good summer programs/activites that would be good for her?</p>
<p>I've heard of SAAST at UPenn, and some summer camps, but it seems like all the bigger programs are mostly reserved for juniors and up.</p>
<p>Check out Wash U in St. Louis - they have a three week medicine/science camp for high school kids in August. It’s about $5K though. You can find it on their website.</p>
<p>Ok, thanks! I’ll definitely check it out. I asked her again today, and she told me that she really enjoyed the biotech labs that they’ve been doing at her school, so I’ll look into that too.
Do you guys think that community college courses are a stretch for a rising sophomore? The one nearby has some good ones on anatomy/physiology and it’s relatively inexpensive.</p>
<p>How about a paid summer internship at a company like Genzyme Genetics? (you’ll need to google locations.) They have excellent jobs for college aged science students.</p>
<p>Oh, I see now you mean High School '14. Genzyme has a program for HSers, but they need to have finished junior year.</p>
<p>My 14 D worked on an organic self-sustaining farm last summer and learned about the “science” of sustainability - how to calculate river flow into energy, chemistry of composting, etc…she received a ton of service hours, it was interesting and fun. PM me if you want to learn more…</p>
<p>It’s her summer and she’s in high school, so I would probably avoid community college classes. Focus on something that will be fun for her as well as educational, like a science camp or something like momofboston suggests. Do you have a science center in your town? I know a lot of my more science-inclined friends were counselors for the Pacific Science Center summer day-camps or were Science Center volunteers. I think since she’s a high school freshman, it’s not necessary to go with anything too formalized or expensive, just let her have fun with it.</p>
<p>Check out this summer camp. It’s designed for high schoolers who enjoy academics, but also want to have fun (and kids say at colleges). My sons loved it.
<p>St Olaf runs a girls camp based on Rub Goldberg machines. [Engineering</a> and Physics Camp | St. Olaf College](<a href=“http://www.stolaf.edu/conferences/camps/science/index.html]Engineering”>http://www.stolaf.edu/conferences/camps/science/index.html)
This was a ton of fun for a girl I know.
“Working with faculty who have supervised the team of students who won the 2009 national Rube Goldberg Machine Contest held annually at Purdue University (see a video of the machine by searching “St. Olaf Rube Goldberg” on YouTube), participants in this camp will learn principles and techniques utilized by engineers and scientists every day as they build their own machines. They will then demonstrate their completed machines to the rest of the camp, family, and friends on the last day of camp.”</p>
<p>My daughter would love to go to the camp run by Smith College: [The</a> Smith Summer Science and Engineering Program for High School Girls](<a href=“Summer Science & Engineering Program | Smith College”>Summer Science & Engineering Program | Smith College)
“<br>
ABOUT THE PROGRAM
The Smith Summer Science and Engineering Program (SSEP) is a four-week residential program for exceptional young women with strong interests in science, engineering and medicine. Each July, select high school students from across the country and abroad come to Smith College to do hands-on research with Smith faculty in the life and physical sciences and in engineering. Girls who will be in high school (grades 9-12) in fall 2011 are eligible to apply for the summer 2011 program.”</p>
<p>If you want to keep it more relaxed, a short week program that is now accepting applications is the STEM program at the Naval Academy. I can’t find my link right now, but I’m sure you can google it. The program is competitive and free if accepted. You would need to pay travel expenses.</p>
<p>Ok, I’ll definitely check all of those out.
The STEM program, Smith and Summer Institute for the Gifted seem like things she might enjoy. I’ll run them past her…</p>
<p>I’m not really sure what kind of environment would be good for her…she likes things to have a purpose, not really that much of a casual learner. </p>
<p>Just as a question, Have you guys heard anything about CTY? One of her friend’s is doing that, but I haven’t really heard of many kids doing it.</p>
<p>Also, anything about SAAST at UPenn or the 4 week Biotech camp at Stony Brook? Some girls from her school that have been accepted into some top colleges (HPYSM and the like) went to those between their freshman and sophomore summers, so I’m curious to see if anyone else has any feedback/heard of them.</p>
<p>We live in NY, so I’d prefer to keep it restricted to the NE…at least for my sake </p>
<p>Thanks for the suggestions! This forum is great, everyone in our area is so uber competitive that they don’t even like to share information on summer camps. (at least our social circle…)</p>
<p>The Society for Science & the Public, the administrator of The Intel Science Talent Search and Intel ISEF has a database that can be queried for a list of programs. Perhaps, if there are programs on that list that are of interest, there will be people on this site who may know something about them.</p>
<p>You will find a number of CC posters with kids who have attended CTY programs. Hopefully they will respond on this thread. If not, start a thread with “CTY” in the title…I’m sure you’ll get responses.</p>
<p>CTY is very well run! Son was there for two pivotal summers of his life. Admission is based on standardized tests like the SAT that you have to do or fish around to locate in your child’s folder so read the qualifications first. Also take a look at Emory U and the CDC for summer programs and also take a look at the Vanderbilt PAVE program. Duke also runs as summer enrichment program like CTY. </p>
<p>Many universities run summer academic programs for students her age. In our state, the University of VA has residential and day programming for advanced students. Do take a look at your own closer to home universities.</p>
<p>I believe that CTY’s website also posts information on programs all over the country.</p>
<p>One of my good friends at Smith was a counselor at the Summer Science and Engineering program for two years and really enjoyed doing that work and the work of the program. Several of the students she worked with through SSEP ended up coming to Smith to be science majors. Just wanted to note that it’s a program for all the sciences, even though Engineering is the only one specifically mentioned in the title. My friend (the counselor) for example, was a bio major with an emphasis on environmental sciences.</p>
<p>^I went to the Smith Summer Science and Engineering Program, and it was, simply put, amazing. As SmithieandProud points out, despite the title, I actually found it focused a lot more on bio/chem/etc. than engineering. I was in the one more engineering course myself. It’s a great program - it’s definitely educational, although there is a lot of focus on showing girls how science and engineering can be fun and worthwhile pursuits. However, while it wouldn’t be as academically rigorous as taking classes, perhaps, it is, in my opinion, extremely worthwhile. </p>
<p>I highly recommend it, and would love to answer any questions about it. While I didn’t end up going to Smith, I was accepted and would have almost certainly gone if the finances had worked out better - the program does a great job on selling Smith as well; you really can’t help but fall in love with it.</p>
<p>Try CTD @ Northwestern University, i’m a freshman as well and I will be taking Chem Honors there. Although the courseload is rigorous (I took a class there last year as well), they balance academics with other activities, such as going into Chicago, Navy Pier, sightseeing, the beach… etc. I ended up meeting fantastic people there and loved it, which is why I’m going again.</p>
<p>It’s 3 weeks long and she’d stay in the NU dorms with other students and RAs. It’s around 3-4K, but their fin aid program is very generous.</p>
<p>Think about a summer job. Maybe she’ll be able to get an internship somewhere. Colleges like jobs because they show consistency, as opposed to being shipped off to a summer program, unless that program is super prestigious.</p>
<p>All that being said, your daughter is a freshman in high school. Is it all that bad if she doesn’t do anything?</p>
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