Eleven high school students participated in a one-week STEM summer camp focused on designing and building parachutes to deliver fragile objects safely. Using the Engineering Design Process (EDP) as a framework, students explored how canopy size affects performance. They applied physics concepts such as terminal velocity, forces, and acceleration,…

Hawai?i students, and in particular Native Hawaiian students, face high rates of attrition and low representation in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) academic majors and careers, but place-based Course-based Undergraduate Research Experiences (CUREs) such as the Research Experiences in Marine Science (REMS) summer program…

In this article, second graders learn the basics of engineering through an exploration of magnetic levitation (maglev) technology. The author designed and taught the lessons to a class of 26 students enrolled in a month-long summer science program. The maglev lessons took place over three mornings (15 minutes for the first lesson and 40 minutes…

The transition from general chemistry to organic chemistry is challenging for many students. To succeed, students must remember their foundational chemistry skills and effectively transfer that knowledge into the context of organic chemistry. However, this transition is often hindered by many obstacles: (1) lack of prerequisite knowledge, (2) lack…

The purpose of the study is to evaluate the effects of chemistry activities applied in summer science camp on secondary school students. Action research was used in the study as the method. The sample of the study consists of 48 7th grade students who study at elementary school in Çayeli district of Rize province, in Turkey. Each week 24 students…

Many countries all over the world have recently integrated nature of science (NOS) concepts into their science education standards. Providing professional support to teachers about NOS concepts is crucially important for successful implementation of the standards. For this purpose, a summer science camp was offered to elementary and science…

Herein, we describe an effective and tested model of a week-long summer science intensive program for high school students that aimed to elaborate on concepts covered in a high school chemistry or biology course, and to provide high school students an opportunity to learn about studying and pursuing careers in the sciences. The program was…

Quantum mechanical (QM) and molecular docking methods are used to probe systems of biological and synthetic interest. Probing interactions of nucleobases within proteins, and properly modeling said interactions toward novel nucleobase development, is extremely difficult, and of great utility in RNA interference (RNAi) therapeutics. The issues in…

This study examines the effect of a summer science camp involved in explicit-reflective Nature of Science (NOS) instruction on Turkish gifted students' views of NOS. During the teaching intervention, six experienced faculties and two teachers taught six explicit-reflective NOS activities (90 minutes per day through a seven-day period) to 30 gifted…

In daily life, students are allowed to use words such as "more," "some," or "increase-decrease" to describe the relationship between two events. In science, concise description is necessary, which requires the contribution of math. In the summer component of the Science Research Institute program, students integrated…

It is important for people to be able to judge the nature while actually living in it to gain the scientific perspective which is an important skill nowadays. Within this importance, the general purpose of this study is to examine the effect of active learning based science camp activities on sixth, seventh and eighth grade students' opinions…

There's no better way to celebrate 2009, the International Year of Astronomy, than by curling up with a good book under summer skies. To every civilization, in every age, the skies inspired imagination and scientific inquiry. There's no better place to start your summer reading than under their influence. Here are a few selections identified by…

The Institute in Physical Science was developed to address the need for updated information and training in physics, chemistry, and technology among teachers of physical science. Five major objectives addressed were to: (1) improve physical science teachers' understanding of fundamental concepts in physics and chemistry; (2) provide physical…

The Summer Institute in Science was developed to address the need for updated information and training in physics, chemistry, and technology among elementary and secondary teachers. Three major objectives addressed were to: (1) improve teachers' understanding of basic concepts in the subject field; (2) provide teachers with training in the use of…

Describes the Student Science Training Program (SSTP) held in Hawaii for 30 high school students gifted in science and math. The seven-week program presents coursework, laboratory experiments, recitation/discussion, computer programming, field trips, research participation, and socialization. (MVL)