A Bug’s World

grades K-12

The Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center’s Department of Entomology offers an exciting, hands-on introduction into the world of insects. The 2-day event addresses approximately 70 percent of Ohio’s science benchmarks through hands-on interactive sessions such as Critters Up Close, Café Insecta, Pollination Jubilation, Who’s Been Eating My Lunch, Insect Friends, and many more. Sessions are tailored to the science standards for each grade level. Nearly 1,000 students have attended this event each year since 2003. www.oardc.ohio-state.edu/visitor/abw.html

Airport Job Shadow

middle school students

The staff of The Ohio State University Airport works closely with youth to provide them with a 1-day, up-close experience with various careers in aviation. Areas of interest include airport management, airport operations, flight training, and air traffic control. Teacher approval is required. College of Engineering, Ohio State University Airport. www.osuairport.org/Education/Shadow/

Aviation Career Exploration

high school students

The Ohio State University Airport staff and its partners provide students with an in-depth, customized shadow and career exploration program. Student with an interest in aviation as a career can work at the University Airport and other local aviation-related businesses. A free introductory flight is included, if desired. Each experience runs 6-10 weeks. Teacher approval is required. College of Engineering, Ohio State University Airport. www.osuairport.org/Education/Shadow/

Black Pilots Association Aviation Career Education (ACE) Camp

grades 6-12

A collaborative program between The Ohio State University Airport and the Black Pilots Association (BPA) allows inner-city youths to experience aviation through a first-hand introduction to flight. Free plane rides are included. College of Engineering, Ohio State University Airport. Participants must register directly through the BPA at www.obap.org/programs www.osuairport.org/Education/

Breakfast of Science Champions

grades 7-8

The Breakfast of Science Champions introduces introduces middle school students to scientific careers and college opportunities by bringing a small group of seventh and eighth graders from a number of different schools to explore the Ohio State campus. Students meet faculty and graduate students from the sciences while enjoying a continental breakfast, tour labs, and participate in demonstrations. Science sites have included the College of Veterinary Medicine, the College of Engineering, and the Byrd Polar Research Center. Each spring, students participate in a virtual conference in which they present, via video conference, what they learned on their earlier visits. College of Veterinary Medicine, Byrd Polar Research Center, College of Engineering, Colleges of the Arts and Sciences. 614-292-3752.

Don Scott Field Tours

grades K-12

Interactive tours of The Ohio State University Airport (Don Scott Field) offer a behind-the-scenes experience that introduces youth to airport operations, flight training, and aircraft maintenance, while highlighting the airport’s importance in the community. College of Engineering, Department of Aviation, University Airport. www.osuairport.org/Education/Tours/

Engineering Summer Academy

high school seniors

The Engineering Summer Academy is a 3-week program consisting of 72 hours of classroom and laboratory instruction (Monday-Saturday). Students are expected to devote their study hours to the mental discipline of a concentrated academic experience. The academic experience includes problem solving and introduction to computer systems, including CAAD, spreadsheets, and editors. The course, Engineering H191, includes methods of problem solving, algorithmic development, and introduction to three-dimensional orthographic and pictorial visualization and presentation. To be selected for this program, students must have completed their junior year in high school. It is recommended that students rank in the top 10 percent of their class and show strength in mathematics as demonstrated by the PSAT. College of Engineering. www-afa.adm.ohio-state.edu/undergrad/academy/summer.html

Engineers in Motion

grades 11-12

Each summer, the Women in Engineering program offers a 6-day workshop for high school students who are interested in learning more about the field of engineering and engineering-related careers. Male and female students who have completed the 9th or 10th grade are eligible to apply, and applications are available by early to mid-January. Participants live in a university dorm throughout the workshop, and they are exposed to different areas of engineering through hands-on activities, interactive demonstrations, and presentations led by Ohio State engineering faculty and graduate students. The summer workshop is made possible through the support of the Honda-Ohio State Partnership, and participants also have the opportunity to travel to Honda of America Manufacturing in Marysville, Ohio, where they meet with professional engineers and tour a Honda facility. The participants spend their evenings engaged in recreational activities designed to introduce them to the opportunities available to undergraduates at Ohio State. College of Engineering, Women in Engineering. wie.eng.ohio-state.edu/prospective/outreach.htm

Future Engineers’ Summer Camp

middle school girls

Each summer, the Women in Engineering program offers a 5-day, nonresidential camp for 30 female middle school students who are interested in learning more about engineering and engineering-related careers. Female students who will enter the eighth grade in the academic year following the camp are eligible to apply, and applications are available by early to mid-January. Participants explore the field of engineering through a variety of interactive demonstrations, hands-on activities, tours, and presentations. In addition to taking part in tours and activities offered on campus, participants travel to nearby companies where they learn more about engineering-related careers and what engineers do in the “real world.” College of Engineering, Women in Engineering. wie.eng.ohio-state.edu/prospective/outreach.htm#middle

Girls Discover…Engineering!

middle school girls

This day-long program takes place annually at COSI. Girls in grades 6-8 interact with female engineers and engineering students to explore career opportunities in engineering. The girls learn to work in collaborative groups to solve problems and participate in workshops that explore a variety of engineering careers with women engineers from across Ohio. Female engineering students from Ohio State serve as near-peer mentors-for-a-day to the middle school girls. Their efforts are coordinated by the Women in Engineering program in partnership with COSI. A concurrent program for parents, teachers, and mentors of middle school girls helps adults understand how to keep middle school girls involved in math and science. College of Engineering, Women in Engineering. www.cosi.org/educators/mentoring/girlsdiscover/

Girls Reaching to Achieve in Sports and Physics (GRASP)

middle school girls

The GRASP summer camp is a 5-day camp for middle school girls hosted by the Ohio State Women in Physics organization with help from Department of Physics faculty, staff, and students. Each day consists of hands-on, interactive physics demonstrations and projects followed by a physical activity that shows how physics relates to everyday phenomena. Ohio State undergraduate and graduate students are present at all sessions to help supervise and share their understanding and love of physics with the GRASP participants. College of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, Department of Physics. www.physics.ohio-state.edu/undergrad/GRASP/GRASP.php

Honda-Ohio State Partnership Math Medal Award and Scholarship Program

high school seniors

The annual award recognizes and honors achievements in mathematics courses throughout high school. The award is offered to 156 high schools near Honda operations to increase awareness of engineering as a career. Math medal recipients also have the opportunity to apply for a $2,500 annual scholarship at the Ohio State College of Engineering. elearn.eng.ohio-state.edu/honda

Matherscize Summer Mathematics Camp

middle school girls

Matherscize is a weeklong day camp intended forgirls entering grades 4-8. The purpose of the camp is to help all interested girls—those who are struggling in mathematics as well as those who already enjoy and are successful in mathematics—learn to reason through mathematics activities in a supportive community-like environment. The curriculum emphasizes mathematical processes (problem solving, communication, representation, connections, and proof) through integrated content and collaboration. Ohio State Newark, College of Education and Human Ecology, School of Teaching and Learning. newark.osu.edu/derchick/matherscize

Ohio EMPT Program

high school students

The Ohio Early College Mathematics Placement Testing Program is a mathematics intervention program designed to help high school students make decisions about taking mathematics courses while still in high school. The program tests are administered to high school sophomores, juniors, and seniors to give them an indication of where they stand in terms of mathematics knowledge. Each student receives a personalized report of his or her performance with a list of mathematics courses required for their intended major and an indication of what remedial courses, if any, would be required if mathematics skills remain at the tested level. Students are able to request course information in terms of the curriculum at any of the participating Ohio colleges and universities. The service is free and available online with school testing anywhere and any time (within a 2-week testing period), or the tests are available in paper versions through high school sign-ups. Academic year and summer professional development institutes for teachers are available. College of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, Department of Mathematics. www.empt.org

Ohio Science Olympiad

grades 6-12

The Ohio Science Olympiad is held each spring on the Columbus campus of Ohio State. Middle and high school teams compete in interscholastic competitions in various science disciplines. The intent is to improve the quality of science education and increase student interest by recognizing outstanding achievement and encouraging inquiry. Regional tournaments are held around the state in February and March, and some schools hold invitationals prior to the regionals.The Science Olympiad is a national nonprofit organization that sponsors science and technology competitions for high school students. The interscholastic competitions consist of 23 individual and team events covering a range of scientific disciplines.  Office of Continuing Education. www.continuinged.ohio-state.edu/scioly/

Ohio Supercomputer Center Summer Institute

grades 9-10

This 2-week residential program gives gifted Ohio high school freshmen and sophomores project-based, hands-on learning experiences. Working in small peer teams, the students use supercomputers for practical applications such as solving complex science and engineering problems, conducting network forensics to catch hackers, studying the spread of the bird flu, and designing computer games.  Ohio Supercomputer Center. www.osc.edu/education/si/

Pre-Freshman and Cooperative Education (PREFACE) Program

high school seniors

PREFACE is a diversity initiative of the Minority Engineering Program. This summer enrichment program is designed to help participants make a smooth transition from high school to the university and to accelerate progress through the freshman engineering curriculum. PREFACE consists of a 6-week academic component in which participants attend classes in physics, chemistry, mathematics, introduction to engineering, and English. Following the academic component, the program attempts to place students in a 6-week engineering-related job. Students may apply for the program during their senior year of high school. College of Engineering, Minority Engineering Program. mep.eng.ohio-state.edu/welcome/summer_bridge.html

Ross Program for Students

high school students

The Ross Program offered by the Ohio State University in partnership with the Clay Mathematics Institute is an intensive summer experience designed to encourage motivated high students to explore mathematics. The goal is to instruct students in the art of mathematical thinking and to inspire them to discover for themselves that abstract ideas are valuable and important. First-year participants take the basic course in number theory.. Fees for this program are entirely determined by the dormitory charges for 8 weeks of room and board. College of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, Department of Mathematics. www.math.ohio-state.edu/ross/index.html

State Science Day

grades 7-12

Hosted by The Ohio State University Office of Continuing Education, State Science Day is the academic equivalent of a state athletic championship and one of the largest of its kind in the nation. Judges evaluate the scientific research and communication skills of student awardees who advance to the state-level competition from more than 16 district science days. Among the many awards at State Science Day are Governor’s Awards for Excellence in Student Research in agriculture and food science, biotechnology, environmental science, information science and technology, manufacturing sciences, materials science, recycling and litter prevention, and water resources research. www.statescienceday.osu.edu/

STEM Academy in Computational Science and Engineering

grades 11-12

The 2-week STEM Academy is for upperclass high school students interested in computer modeling and simulation in engineering design. The nonresidential summer program operates at two sites, the Ohio Supercomputer Center and the University of Akron. It teaches basic modeling and programming skills, enhances communication skills, and shows how to apply concepts in math, scientific experimentation, and design. The program continues through the academic year with mentoring and two Saturday events focusing on more sophisticated approaches to modeling and simulation. Student participants receive three semester hours of undergraduate credit and at least a half credit from their high schools. Teachers learn how to integrate modeling and simulation into their classrooms, how to teach the materials associated with this course, and how to apply project-based learning to enhance their own classrooms. Teachers receive three semester hours of graduate credit for their participation. Ohio Supercomputer Center, Ralph Regula School of Computational Science. www.rrscs.org/STEM_academy/index.shtml

Stone Lab Science Field Trips for School Groups

grades 4-12

Teachers can bring classes (grade 4 or older) to Stone Laboratory during the spring and fall for a special custom-designed workshop/field trip that can include a science cruise on a research vessel, fish dissections, identification of plankton using microscopes, bird walks, insect walks, invertebrate collections, seining, and history discussions. Accommodating 175 groups and over 5,500 individuals annually, Stone Lab’s science workshop program offers a variety of activities, ranging from water sampling on a research vessel on the lake to identifying microscopic aquatic organisms and dissecting fish in a lab. These field trips meet many of the Ohio Academic Content Standards for Science. Groups have the option to schedule a 1-day workshop or stay overnight for a 2-day workshop from mid-April-October. ohioseagrant.osu.edu/education/

Summer Honors Institute for Gifted Students

grades 9-10

This weeklong summer course provides gifted students the opportunity to be immersed in a robotics experience that will develop engineering skills. The course introduces students to the various engineering disciplines and teaches them some engineering fundamentals. Participants must be Ohio residents currently in the 9th or 10th grade in an Ohio school district and must be officially identified as gifted and talented. College of Engineering. feh.osu.edu/SHI/

WIE Preview Day

high school seniors

Each spring, the Women in Engineering program hosts a Preview Day for young women in the 12th grade and their parents/guardians. This half-day event gives female students and their parents/guardians the opportunity to meet with engineering faculty, staff, advisors, and students. The event is also designed to introduce prospective students and their parents to the different engineering departments, the first-year engineering program, and the College of Engineering’s various learning communities. College of Engineering, Women in Engineering. wie.eng.ohio-state.edu/prospective/prospective.html

Wonders of Our World

grades K-6

The Wonders of Our World (WOW) program brings creative, hands-on science experiments to classrooms in the Columbus area. Volunteers work with teachers to facilitate interactive experiments throughout the school year at local schools. Several hundred Ohio State undergraduates, as well as Ohio State faculty and professional scientists, volunteer with the WOW program. Volunteers visit classrooms to work with teachers on conducting experiments from most branches of science, including physics, chemistry, biology, and geology. WOW works with each participating school for 3 years, with the long-term objective of helping teachers enrich their science curricula. WOW donates equipment to schools to be used after volunteers no longer facilitate experiments. College of Mathematical and Physical Sciences. wow.osu.edu

Young Women’s Summer Institute

middle school girls

This weeklong program sponsored by the Ohio Supercomputer Center is for middle school girls in Ohio. It is designed to promote computer, math, and science skills as well as provide hands-on experiences. YWSI helps girls develop an interest in these subjects by allowing them to work on practical, interesting scientific problems using the latest computer technology. K-12 science and math teachers may also participate. www.osc.edu/education/ywsi/index.shtml