Do you wonder how special effects work? What the future of space travel might really be? If cars can run on solar energy? Can you build a robot that will clean your room? This two-week workshop is for you!

Session Descriptions

Biology

  • CSI (Crime Scene Investigation): Participate in an exciting laboratory-based scientific investigation including state-of-the-art DNA profiling as done in real-world forensic science labs.
  • Explore Nature’s Pharmacy through a Taste, Touch, and Feel experience.

Chemistry

  • The Zombie Apocalypse is upon us! Luckily our Penn State Harrisburg team had the foresight to prepare a cure…but it seems to have been mislabeled! Using standard qualitative analysis techniques, students will identify chemicals based on density, gas chromatography, paper chromatography, and other physical properties. Once the correct cure has been identified, students will need to use ELISA testing to determine who needs the cure. ELISA uses antigen/antibody bonding and colorimetry to determine the presence or absence of proteins.

Civil Engineering

  • The Past, Present, and Future of Construction Materials: learn how materials have changed and test them yourself. Think the General Motor’s commercial “It’s not your father’s Oldsmobile.”  
  • Build-A-Bridge: a friendly competition to design and build a bridge.

Computer Science

  • What is “computer” science?  Games and puzzles are used at places like Google and Apple because they help us explore new methods in computer science. Computer science includes techniques for encoding, compressing, and encrypting information, ways artificial intelligence (AI) can be used, and what problems computers might not ever solve.

Electrical Engineering

  • Learn to solder and build a light-seeking robot.
  • Once it is working, you are free to modify your robot for better performance. 
  • You get to keep the robot at the end of the session.

Mathematics

  • Cryptography:  Encode messages and information numerically, then send messages securely so that message can decoded only by the receiver.
  • Error-correction:  Encode messages then detect and correct errors in the sent messages.

Mechanical Engineering

  • Create your own airplane and see how far it can fly. Compete against other teams of students to determine who can create the best airplane design.
  • Dive into 3D printing! Turn your engineering designs into real objects with just the click of a button.

Physics

  • We now know that DNA is a double-helix. But how did people figure that out? Scientists used their knowledge of how the world works - physics - to design and perform an experiment. A critical tool was knowing that light behaves as a wave. We will explore properties of light and conduct measurements of our own that reveal some of how light works.