2012 Summer Programs Catalog

Science Courses

In CTY science courses, students discover the world around them. They learn to ask questions and are challenged to explain their observations. Students develop their own theories, then test and refine them through experimentation. They also share their results with each other in order to develop a deeper understanding of the natural world.

CTY science courses offer students the opportunity to delve into a topic that is not generally part of a standard school curriculum. Young people are naturally curious about how things work, and gifted students have a need for in-depth work that challenges them to answer open-ended questions. In a CTY science course, they are able to go beyond household or kitchen science and use more formal scientific equipment.

In all CTY science courses, students spend time each day performing laboratory exercises, hands-on activities, or field work. Students not only explore unique content, but they also learn science processes as they work individually or in groups to gather and interpret data, master scientific concepts, and recognize relationships among physical phenomena. Students may write concluding lab or project reports on experiments they have completed. All CTY science courses emphasize inquiry-based learning, in which instructors facilitate students making their own great discoveries.

Note: Selected biological science courses may include virtual or traditional dissection.

Please refer to our Eligibility web page. Sample syllabi for all courses are also available.The following science courses are listed below:

Be a Scientist!
Through the Microscope
The Edible World
Inventions
Bay Ecology
Dynamic Earth
Sensation and Perception
Examining the Evidence
Crystals and Polymers
Science and Engineering
Flight Science

Be a Scientist!

What do scientists actually do? How do they ask and answer questions? What tools do they use for finding their answers? In this course, students are introduced to the methods scientists use to answer questions about the world around us. They build skills essential to scientific inquiry by engaging in hands-on investigations in a range of areas, such as botany, genetics, and chemistry.

Students examine strategies and techniques used by scientists and put them into practice. For example, students may design and build a terrarium or create a field guide for the unique environment at their site. They also might observe firsthand the behavior of worms, recording notes and drawings in a scientific log; research what others have learned about worms; and share their findings with classmates.

Students learn to question and hypothesize; identify and manipulate variables; observe, measure, and record data; and analyze and interpret results. Throughout the course students discuss their challenges and successes in regular class forums and then incorporate that feedback into further study. As a culminating project, students work in teams or individually to design and carry out their own original investigations. Each student leaves the course better prepared to be a scientist.

Sample text: Materials compiled by the instructor.

Lab Fee: $65

Students must have completed grades: 2 or 3

Session 1: Brooklandville, La Jolla, Pasadena, Sandy Spring, Windward
Session 2: Alexandria, Pasadena, Sandy Spring, Windward

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Through the Microscope

In 1665, Robert Hooke used a microscope to examine cork, providing the first clues that living things are made of cells. Today, the microscope remains a crucial tool for scientific investigation. In this course, students use microscopy to discover the living and non-living world around them, acquiring an introduction to science in the process.

This course begins with an overview of scale and size and an introduction to the history and proper use of microscopes. Students then examine and compare living one-celled and multi-cellular organisms such as algae, elodea, rotifers, and paramecium as they differentiate between bacterial, animal, and plant cells. Emphasis is placed on cell structure, nutrient needs, and growth. Students also gain a new appreciation for the intricacies of familiar things such as newsprint, fibers, or blades of grass. They develop laboratory skills including staining, preparing wet mounts, DNA extraction, and inoculation.

After their introduction to the microscope and cell biology, students consider atoms and compounds, learning why atoms can’t be seen with light microscopes. Students then grow and examine salt crystals. They also explore the various ways microscopes are used in the field as they investigate forensic science and pathology. Through laboratory work, model building, drawing, writing, and research, students leave the course with an understanding of microscopy and its role in science.

Sample text: Usborne Complete Book of the Microscope, Rogers.

Lab & Field Trip Fee: $65

Students must have completed grades: 3 or 4

Session 1: Brooklandville, Sandy Spring, Windward
Session 2: Alexandria, Sandy Spring, Windward

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The Edible World

Have you ever wondered about the strange smell of vinegar, the purple stain left by grape juice, or the ingredients in a sports drink? Why do canned foods last for years without refrigeration? How do you make ice cream creamier? In this course, students take a closer look at the common products on grocery shelves, and use these items as a springboard to learn about chemistry and biotechnology.

The three basic components of food—proteins, carbohydrates, and fats—are the building blocks of all life as we know it. They are also the fuel the body burns to provide the necessary energy for everything from taking a breath to reading a book to running a marathon. By researching and writing about foods from different cultures, students discover how the need for proteins, carbohydrates, and fats is met by different people around the world.

Through class discussions and laboratory experiments, students look more closely at the composition of familiar foods, consider the chemical reactions necessary to make certain foods, and explore the role that food plays in health and disease throughout the world. Activities might include determining the fat content of cheeses, separating the pigments in plants, or measuring the caloric content of a peanut. Students may keep a food journal and conduct nutritional analyses of their own diets, or prepare a poster presentation on how seaweed can be changed into salad dressing.

Sample texts: Food Rules!, Haduch; It’s Disgusting and We Ate It: True Food Facts from Around the World and Throughout History, Solheim.

Lab Fee: $65

Students must have completed grades: 3 or 4

Session 1: Brooklandville, Sandy Spring
Session 2: Alexandria, Sandy Spring, Windward

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Inventions

Did you know that the idea for the microwave oven was set in motion by a melted chocolate bar? While standing in front of a magnetron, inventor Percy Spencer noticed that his treat had begun melting in his pocket. To further test the potential of the magnetron, Spencer held a bag of corn kernels next to it and watched them pop. From this simple experiment that led to the microwave oven to students’ own creations, this course is about inventors, inventions, and their impact on our world.

How does a toaster work, and what might make it work better? How can a package be designed to mail a potato chip so that it doesn’t break? In this course, students dismantle gadgets to figure out how things work and use ordinary household items to create new inventions. Students apply for mock patents, collaborate with their fellow inventors, keep an inventions journal, and work in teams to create hovercrafts or design more effective burglar alarms. In addition, students research the lives and innovative ideas of inventors past and present.

Throughout this process of inquiry, discovery, and problem solving, students explore not only the how and why of various discoveries and inventions, but also the impact they have had across the centuries. This integrated examination of inventions in our world offers young inventors a fuller understanding of the implications and promise of their creative imaginings.

Sample text: Inventing Stuff, Sobey.

Lab & Field Trip Fee: $95

Students must have completed grades: 3 or 4

Session 1: Brooklandville, La Jolla, Pasadena, Sandy Spring, Windward
Session 2: Alexandria, Pasadena, Sandy Spring, Windward

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Bay Ecology

This course gives students a comprehensive view of the Chesapeake Bay, one of the largest estuaries in the world. Students examine the relationships among the land, the rivers, and the Bay, and the human impact on this system. They address the greatest problems affecting the Bay—excess nutrients and sediment—and learn how these pollutants reach its waters. Students consider different viewpoints on issues—political, economic, social, and scientific—affecting the health of the Bay, and they speculate about the Bay’s future. In the field, where they strengthen their skills in recording and interpreting data, students collect biological samples, test water quality, pull fishing nets, dredge for oysters, evaluate land usage, and observe wildlife.

Note: While the level of this course is advanced, students from the Chesapeake Bay region may have covered at least some of the material in school. Please show a sample syllabus to your school science teacher or coordinator for guidance in determining whether this course will be appropriate given your child’s knowledge and experience in this subject area.

Sample texts: Chesapeake Bay: Nature of the Estuary, White; Life in the Chesapeake Bay, Lippson and Lippson.

Lab & Field Trip Fee: $110 (Due to the intensive field component of this course, the lab and field trip fee is higher than for other science courses.)

Students must have completed grades: 5 or 6

Session 1: Chestertown
Session 2: Chestertown

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Dynamic Earth

What is happening miles beneath your feet right now? How did Earth become a habitable place for us, and how does it continue to change? In this course, students explore the long and complex history of Earth.

Students begin by examining the universe in which our sun is only one of billions of stars and our planet is a tiny speck. Students then zoom in on Earth—its climate, geologic structures, and plate tectonics. From this perspective students look at cataclysmic events, including volcanic eruptions, avalanches, and earthquakes. Students also focus on gradual alterations of Earth’s surface through erosion, weathering, and other forces. In labs and field work, students differentiate among Earth’s movements using seismographs, test multiple factors affecting rates of erosion, and simulate sediment transport and deposition.

The class concludes by focusing on basic matter, studying the atom in terms of structure, periodicity, and reactivity, and exploring acid/base characteristics of elements. Field trips include a journey to a fault zone. By understanding Earth from its place in the universe to its molecular makeup, students gain a greater appreciation of the constant motion that makes ours a living, changing planet.

Sample text: The Field Guide to Geology, Lambert.

Lab & Field Trip Fee: $95

Students must have completed grades: 5 or 6

Session 1: Palo Alto
Session 2: Palo Alto

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Sensation and Perception

You may know that our skin helps us decide whether or not the bath water is too hot and that our nose helps us tell fresh from spoiled milk. But do you know how? In this course, students are introduced to the science behind these everyday observations. In the laboratory, students dissect sensory organs and investigate sensory perceptions. They learn what cell types make up a sensory system, how those cells communicate with the brain, and how the brain can be fooled by illusions and expectations. Students learn how cats can “see in the dark,” how people can point to the source of a sound with their eyes closed, and why fingertips are much more sensitive than knees.

Students also learn about sensory abilities alien to our own, such as sonar navigation and electric organs. In group exercises, students brainstorm all the possible sources of sensory input for a living organism and invent new technologies to improve or repair the senses. Students employ the scientific method by creating hypotheses, collecting data from their classmates, and formulating their own answers to questions about sensation, perception, and the brain.

Sample texts: The Man Who Mistook His Hat for His Wife, Sacks; Anatomy and Physiology Coloring Book, Marieb.

Lab Fee: $65

Students must have completed grades: 5 or 6

Session 1: Chestertown, South Hadley, Sandy Spring
Session 2: Chestertown, Thousand Oaks, Alexandria

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Examining the Evidence

How can an abandoned car, devoid of license plates or other identifying marks, help detectives solve a jewelry heist? How can a single hair keep a man from going to jail for a murder he did not commit? In this course, students discover the answers to these types of questions as they explore the science behind forensic investigation.

After reviewing the basic scientific skills of observation and deduction, students learn how to properly process a crime scene. In lab exercises, students draw upon techniques employed by forensic scientists to analyze fingerprints, hair, fibers, impressions, and documents left at the scene of a crime. Students also explore blood typing and spatter patterns, toxicology, and DNA analysis. Through the study of notorious cases, such as the Lindbergh baby kidnapping and the assassination of John F. Kennedy, students become familiar with the history and advances of forensic science. 

Finally, in mock investigations students use the scientific method and their newly acquired analytical techniques to uncover clues, examine evidence, and draw conclusions to help them crack the cases.

Note: In this course, students learn about forensic techniques used to solve crimes. Instructors gear their treatment of the material to the age of the students, but some violent crimes are considered.

Sample text: Forensic Science, Bertino.

Lab Fee: $65

Students must have completed grades: 5 or 6

Session 1: Chestertown, South Hadley, Thousand Oaks, Brooklandville, Sandy Spring, Windward
Session 2: Chestertown, South Hadley, Thousand Oaks, Alexandria, Sandy Spring, Windward

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Crystals and Polymers

Why do some plastic containers melt in a microwave oven while others don’t? What makes Silly Putty^® stretchy? How are packing peanuts made? Chemical structure provides the key for answering these questions. In this introductory chemistry course, students examine how the many different possible arrangements of a small number of basic building blocks determine the properties and behaviors of gems and polymers.

Students begin by investigating the building blocks: atoms. As they learn about ions and the three-dimensional structure of compounds, students construct models and grow crystals such as salt or rock candy in the lab. They discover how small changes in the structures of different gems lead to dramatic changes in their shapes and colors. Moving on to polymers, students synthesize slime or silly putty to investigate concepts such as molecular chain length and cross-linking. They then explore commercial applications, experimenting with super-absorbing molecules like those used in diapers. Students also research how different plastics are synthesized and how that affects their properties, including recyclability and malleability. Finally students engage in activities such as isolating strawberry DNA and denaturing proteins to study biopolymers.

Throughout the course, students apply their new-found knowledge of chemical bonding and structure to develop a more thorough understanding of the materials in their everyday lives.

Sample texts: Eyewitness: Crystals & Gems, Symes; Polymers All Around You, Sarquis, ed.

Lab Fee: $65

Students must have completed grades: 5 or 6

Session 1: South Hadley, Thousand Oaks, La Jolla
Session 2: South Hadley, Alexandria

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Science and Engineering

How do simple machines work? How can a concrete boat float? How do you build the strongest bridge with the lightest building materials? Physics, the science of matter and its motion, helps answer these questions and more. In this course, students explore basic physics and engineering concepts such as principles of mechanics; electricity and magnetism; waves and optics; and thermodynamics. They learn through hands-on activities and projects reinforced by lectures, class discussions, and practice exercises.

Students might participate in a catapult design challenge to learn about projectile motion or take part in an egg-drop container contest to investigate impulse. To study potential and kinetic energy, they might design and build roller coasters, and they could learn about current and voltage by using a lemon to light a bulb. Students carefully analyze data they collect and write reports about the projects.

Students learn how to ask scientific questions, hypothesize, and experiment in order to interpret physical phenomena. By the end of the course, students acquire an understanding of major concepts in physics and an enhanced ability to work in groups and individually to solve problems in the physical sciences.

Note: Students in this class should have a strong background in pre-algebra or have completed CTY’s Inductive and Deductive Reasoning or Data and Chance.

Sample texts: The Cartoon Guide to Physics, Gonick; The Art of Construction, Salvadori.

Lab Fee: $65

Students must have completed grades: 5 or 6

Session 1: All residential sites, Brooklandville, La Jolla, Pasadena, Sandy Spring
Session 2: All residential sites, Alexandria, Pasadena, Sandy Spring

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Flight Science

From the sketches of Leonardo da Vinci to the expeditions of Amelia Earhart, humans have long struggled to unlock the mysteries of flight. In this course, students study the work of scientists, engineers, and explorers past and present as they examine flight in both the natural and man-made worlds.

Students learn about the science behind the flight of balloons, birds, airplanes, helicopters, and rockets. Topics include buoyancy, kinematics, fluid flow and the Coanda effect, Newton’s laws, and the four forces of aerodynamics: lift, weight, thrust, and drag. Students pay particular attention to how the wing of an airplane generates lift, and why the common explanation based on Bernoulli’s Principle is really a myth. They design, construct, and test model aircraft. Students investigate the engineering process and how aerospace engineers make choices to meet the design goals for a particular aircraft, such as finding the best wing plan to achieve high speed for a fighter plane or large lifting capacity for a cargo plane. They also explore rocket science, orbital motion, and the challenges of space travel. Field trips to aviation facilities complement the students’ discussions and explorations. Students leave the course with an understanding of the science that makes flight possible.

Sample texts: Understanding Flight, Anderson; The Cartoon Guide to Physics, Gonick.

Lab & Field Trip Fee: $95

Students must have completed grades: 5 or 6

Session 1: Chestertown, South Hadley, Thousand Oaks, Brooklandville, Windward
Session 2: Chestertown, South Hadley, Thousand Oaks, Windward

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