A A A

department banner


Science in Motion
Jeff Knisley/David Tarnoff


A middle school math and science camp has potential for greatly changing attitudes and outcomes not only for those who participate, but also for any who associate themselves with those participants – i.e., their middle school classmates and teachers. To tap into that potential, we believe that the camp should define and recognize the needs and goals of 3 important constituencies – student participants, their parents, and the camp instructors.  In particular, the activities and ideas in this proposal address the collective goals and desires of the parents, as they will play a key role in the success of the camp without ever being directly involved in camp activities themselves. 
(please click here)

Jump, Hop, and Soar 
T.J. Jones/Gary Henson

For each of the activities, there will be an introductory lecture which will be brief to allow as much hands-on time as possible.  We will also provide reference hand-outs of the necessary information.  Many activities will generate data which will be analyzed and graphed.

The activities involve both simple observations and laboratory experiments.  The jumping and flying motions of animals will be observed qualitatively in the field.  Laboratory experiments to measure the aspects of jumping will be carried out with insects and humans (the student participants).  For flight experiments, students will construct various wing types and measure their performance in the laboratory.
(please click here) 

Chemistry activities of the program
Dr. Ning-Feng (Peter) Zhao

The inquiry of science   

Goal:  Introduction of science, scientific inquiry and skills needed to conduct scientific inquiry.  

Background: What is science, why do we need science, and how is science investigation conducted in our world? How is it related to the way we learn science? All these are interesting yet ambiguous questions. Students are normally not clear about the definition of natural science and the scientific inquiry. Guided by the instructor students will experience the complete inquiry process through the live examples.

Objective: After introduction on science and scientific inquiry, students will design and model the procedures of full inquiry investigations on a few hands-on activities including "Dancing Spahetti" and "Dead Trees".
(Please click here)