Bioscience Exploration for Middle Schoolers
Highlights from summer 2009
Program Description
RIT's campus, with it expansive natural environment and modern high-tech laboratories, will be the site for four exciting and fun-filled weeks of Bioscience Exploration for students entering grades 6 - 8. During each one-week camp session participants will learn to see the natural world the way biologist see it, by using both traditional and modern experimental approaches.
Week 1: Living Things from Macroscopic to Microscopic
Campers will participate in a variety of field, laboratory and computer investigations designed to engage both their bodies and their minds. From DNA to ecosystems, we will use the techniques of a biologist to learn about the natural world and to have fun in the process. This camp is the perfect opportunity for youths interested in biology to have access to RIT's natural environment and world class laboratories and faculty.
Week 2: Finches, Fish and Frogs
What is evolution and how do we know it is happening? For one week campers will follow in the footsteps of scientists as they inquire how life has changed over time. From trips into the field observing organisms as early naturalists did, to laboratory work studying the genetic connections among organisms being done at RIT today, campers will consider the questions and evidence that make evolution a relevant, fun and exciting topic to study.
Week 3: Cells and Gels
RIT is at the forefront of biotechnology research. Campers will take advantage of the resources available on the RIT campus to explore, through inquiry driven activities, what a cell is and how scientists conduct experiments to understand how cells function and what goes wrong when we get sick.
Week 4: Imagine Your Place on Earth
Hands on activities, games, experiments and computer simulations will give camp participants an opportunity to explore the relationships that connect all living things. They will develop an understanding of communities and how the interactions within and among them lead to sustainability. The future of our planet and the role young people play will be considered in fun and interesting ways.
