A Taste of Human Genetics
What color are your eyes? Can you roll your tongue? Genes dictate these traits and more. Using techniques critical to the latest biomedical discoveries, explore how human genetics affects taste.
Chromatography: A Chemist’s Best Friend
Gas chromatography is an analytical chemistry technique widely used in academic and industrial labs. This course teaches how to perform gas chromatography and apply the technique towards real-world problems in sustainable chemistry!
The College Essay
Ten Days; one killer essay. Can they do it? Yes, they can! In this workshop, students will learn to write their positive stories that unveil who they are, at their best, to a college admissions officer. This is a Creative Writing Experience, not an English class.
Consciousness - Self, Science, and Society
What makes us human? Do we have free will? And when exactly will technology have a sense of self? By cracking open these questions, this class delves into the neuroscience of consciousness.
Defenders of Your Health: Immune Cell Types and Their Functions
Do you wonder how our body fights against diseases? In this course, you will utilize and understand how we harness our own cells to defend us against cancer.
Engineering on Tap: Designing Filtration Systems for Clean Water
When did you last turn on a faucet? Learn how water moves from streams to your faucet, and build your own filter to remove pollutants from water.
The Forces that Move Us
Muscles produce the forces that move the joints and thus the whole body. Students will learn the role of force and torque in locomotion, as well as the difference between the two quantities via demonstrations and building their own force sensor
How do we detect infectious viruses?
Viruses are too small to be seen with a light microscope. Put on a lab coat and become the scientist that detects and investigates viral infections in the laboratory.
Living Forces: Mechanics in Biology
What do flour, toothpaste, and biological tissues have in common? Let’s explore mechanics in biology and learn why nature is the ultimate engineer
The Mathematics of Symmetry
From wallpaper to crystals, symmetry underlies art, architecture, and science. Mathematics identifies commonalities and rules out the impossible. Learn to draw, analyze and appreciate symmetric patterns from a mathematician’s perspective.
The Microbes On and Around Me
From antibiotic resistant bacteria to the microbiome, come explore the vast unseen world of microorganisms. Your experiments will investigate the bugs that keep us healthy and those that cause disease.
Model Organisms in Biology: The Mighty Worm
We will look into the daily life of a biologist that uses C. elegans to ask important questions in the life sciences, with the hopes of stimulating students to think about how their own outstanding scientific questions could be addressed!
Musical Acoustics & Instrument Design: When Engineering Meets Music
Students will learn about basic engineering tools and acoustic concepts that can be used to design and build musical instruments ranging from electronic to mechanical.
Peanuts to Plasma Cells
Food allergy is a complicated and serious disease. Discover how allergy is caused by the immune system, how scientists are working to stop it, and what mysteries remain.
Perfect Plants: Overcoming the Environment 1 Organ at a Time
We rely on plants for food, clothing, and housing, but what makes a plant work? Dissect plant organs including flowers and stems, and plan experiments to learn their inner workings.
Peanuts to Plasma Cells
Food allergy is a complicated and serious disease. Discover how allergy is caused by the immune system, how scientists are working to stop it, and what mysteries remain.
The Physics of Light
For all of us who can see, we experience light and color every moment. But what are they? We will explore light’s visible and invisible properties, and how these properties enable technologies from lasers to smart phones.
play4Science
Did you know videogames can be used for good? Come explore how our lab develops video games to impact teen health! Teen input leads the way. Are you game?
The Power of Electrochemistry
The future of sustainable energy is based in electrochemistry. By building your own batteries, redox pairs, solar cells and more, you will learn about the science behind how electrical energy is applied!
Radio Astronomy - Measuring the Galaxy
How do we know our galaxy is rotating? Is this evidence for dark matter? Use a simple radio telescope to observe hydrogen gas in our galaxy and chart how it moves.
Sensory Physiology Club
We experience the world through our senses. Explore how they work, test their limits, and compare sensory abilities of animals through hands-on experiments involving taste and smell, touch, and sight.
Scientific Thinking: How to Think Like a Scientist
Controversies, hypotheses, biases and fallacies; examine science’s foundation. What can we know? How do scientists approach truth? Are dragons real and is there milk in the fridge? Let’s discuss!
Stroke Busters
Dive into brain anatomy to explore the symptoms and risk factors of stroke with experts from the field. Participate in stroke code simulations and create fun, interactive lessons to teach others about stroke prevention.
What Powers the World? The Chemistry of Energy
Where does the energy we use come from? Through building batteries and other experiments, we will explore the science behind the different ways energy is captured, stored, and used!
What’s in our air? Building a low cost indoor air quality monitor
Did you know air pollution can be indoors? How do scientists know what’s in it? You’ll build a device to study sources of air pollution indoors and why it matters.
What’s inside the proton? Smash it to find out!
What makes up matter? What are the smallest particles? Smash protons with electrons in computer simulations and study the wreckage to find the answers – just like physicists do at particle colliders!