The programs listed here are for students from elementary school to high school. All include outreach opportunities for Dartmouth faculty and students.
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Cell Biology and Light Microscopy Lab, an introduction to light microscopy including, bright-field, phase-contrast, differential interference contrast and fluorescence microscopy. These classes work well for students who are learning about cell biology and how microscopes are used to study cells. Students can image a variety of live cells including plant cells, blue-algae and their own cheek cells. For fluorescence microscopy, prestained slides are used. These slides have fluorescently labeled DNA, actin and microtubules. Students work with research-level microscopes and digital image capture systems. These 60 -90 minute sessions, are developed in collaboration with the classroom teacher and can be designed for middle school or high school students. The sessions are lead by graduate students, faculty and staff. The lab takes place in the cell biology teaching lab in the Department of Biological Sciences at Dartmouth.
When: By request and availability
Cost: Free
Contact: E-mail Ann Lavanway or Morgan Thompson or call Nancy Serrell, Dartmouth Director of Outreach, at (603) 646-9756.
This school-based program for sixth- to eighth-grade students is based on the public Science Cafés that began in the late 1990s in the United Kingdom as a means of engaging a broader segment of the public in science and its impact on daily life. Held in a common room or school cafeteria during lunch period, these sessions involve a guest scientist — a Dartmouth graduate student or postdoc in the “STEM” disciplines of science, technology, engineering or math — who talks with students about his or her research and career path in science. Sessions are designed to be highly interactive, and the goal is to engage students in studying science and in considering STEM careers. Graduate students and postdocs who participate in this outreach are offered professional development training in communicating science with school children. School Science Café is a program being developed by Dartmouth’s Office of Outreach and the Dartmouth Center for the Advancement of Learning (DCAL) in collaboration with local teachers and Dartmouth graduate students.
Cost: None
When: School lunch periods (or after school); ongoing
Contact: Nancy Serrell, Director of Outreach, Dartmouth College, (603) 646-9756, Sara Head, Science Outreach Coordinator, (603)646-0397 or Cindy Tobery, Associate Director for Professional Development Programs at DCAL.
Science Camp, a school science outreach program, trains Dartmouth students (graduate and undergraduate) to team-teach a series of six interactive science classes for students in the Rivendell School District during winter term. The project, funded through a grant from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, is a collaboration with the Montshire Museum of Science. The time commitment for Dartmouth students is approximately six to seven hours per week for seven weeks, including travel time to the school: an early evening training and pizza session at Montshire on Monday followed by a Wednesday afternoon class at a Rivendell District school. Dartmouth science mentors receive a stipend (~$10/hr) for participating in the project. Qualified applicants should have experience or interest in working with primary school students and must be available for the weekly training session and the afternoon class.
When: Dartmouth’s winter term
Where: Training takes place at Montshire Museum; school sessions in the Rivendell district schools (Fairlee and Vershire, Vermont and Orford, New Hampshire).
Contact: Students interested in participating in this project should e-mail Dartmouth’s Director of Outreach Nancy Serrell or phone 646-9756 for information. Dartmouth students may also download the application form.
This science enrichment activity, suggested by a 9th grade science teacher in Thetford, Vermont, is designed to support students who are learning to create high-school level science posters describing their research projects. These involve five to six graduate students and postdoctoral who give a short (5-6 minute) poster talk then respond to student questions. Participating Dartmouth students receive a “poster talk” training, and many past participants have been winners of Dartmouth’s Graduate Student and Postdoctoral poster sessions. Mini-poster sessions are usually scheduled after the high-school students have begun work developing their own posters.
Cost: None
When: Ongoing; duration is one class period
Contact: Nancy Serrell, Director of Outreach, Dartmouth College, (603) 646-9756.
Fostering Scientific Creativity is the theme of a project funded by the National Science Foundation, through its Graduate STEM Fellows in K-12 Education (GK-12) program. The five-year grant, which was awarded to Dartmouth in 2010, funds fellowships and training for graduate students in STEM fields (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) enabling fellows to collaborate with teachers in school classrooms for a full school year to develop inquiry-based activities designed to increase students’ understanding of and interest in science. Dartmouth’s GK-12, which was developed in partnership with Upper Valley teachers, is focusing on fostering scientific creativity in school children and in graduate students. Graduate Fellows will also develop after-school activities, arrange field trips and visits from Dartmouth faculty, and facilitate other STEM enrichment.
Cost: None (Graduate Fellows and Partner Teachers receive a stipend)
When: Ongoing
Contact: Dartmouth graduate students interested in participating in the program should contact Cindy Tobery. Teachers interested in the program should contact Judy Ross GK-12 Teacher Coordinator, or Nancy Serrell, Director of Outreach, Dartmouth College, (603) 646-9756.
The Department of Biological Sciences Greenhouse houses an extensive and varied plant collection with a wide range of diversity, utility and beauty. Among its most popular collections is the Brout Orchid Collection, which includes thousands of species of orchids. There is also a tropical plant room, a sub-tropical room, and xeric room. While continuing its primary educational mission, this living botanical museum is available for community and school tours. It's open to the public from 8:30 am to 4 pm Monday through Friday. The Greenhouse is located on the 4th floor of Class of 1978 Life Sciences Building at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire.
Cost: None
When: Ongoing
Contact: Kim DeLong, Greenhouse Curator and Manager (603) 646-2382, or e-mail greenhouse@Dartmouth.edu
Exploring Mathematics Workshops are two weeklong summer programs open to all interested students in the region who have had at least 1 year of high school algebra. Instructors are currently enrolled as Ph.D. candidates in mathematics, have completed their Masters degree and have had two years of tutoring experience. They teach the summer program simultaneously while taking the graduate student teaching seminar. Teaching the Exploring Mathematics program is done in partial fulfillment of the Ph.D. requirement in Mathematics.
When: Early summer
Cost: $20
Contact: Tracy Moloney, Department of Mathematics, (603) 646-3723
Junior Solar Sprint is a model solar car competition for middle school students that is sponsored by the US Army Educational Outreach Program and is part of the STEM educational initiative. The Thayer School of Engineering chapter of Tau Beta Pi works with engineers in the local community to host the competition for Upper Valley schools. Participating middle school students develop teamwork and problem solving abilities, investigate environmental issues, gain hands-on engineering skills, and use principals of science and math to get the fastest, most interesting, and best-crafted vehicle possible. Teams can enter their cars in local design and race competitions. Dartmouth students and faculty are welcome to participate in this outreach.
When: Annually in May
Where: Lebanon CCBA, Lebanon, NH
Cost: School participation is $4 per student (includes competition t-shirt); solar vehicle materials must be purchased by schools.
Contact: Douglas Van Citters or Alden Adolph
After School Science and Engineering is an inventive STEM enrichment program run by Dartmouth students (undergraduate and graduate) who enjoy sharing their passion for science and engineering with children in elementary school and junior high. Weekly during each academic term, Dartmouth students lead hand-on activities that exemplify fundamental concepts in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. In the past, students have built everything from boats and rockets to mouse trap dragsters and gumdrop towers under the guidance of experienced student mentors. Projects and lessons are tailored to the ages of the students.
When: Ongoing
Where: Schools in the Upper Valley region
Contact: Dartmouth students interested in participating in this outreach and school representatives who would like to sponsor the program should contact Alden Adolph and Valerie Hanson
Promoting Science Literacy is the theme of a project that aims to enhance high school health and science education in New Hampshire communities. Developed through a five-year, $750,000 grant to Dartmouth Medical School from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, this collaboration includes Dartmouth, the New Hampshire Department of Education, the New Hampshire Science Teachers Association, the New Hampshire Area Health Education Center, and three New Hampshire high school districts (Northumberland, Newmarket, and Mascoma Valley). Four more school districts will be added to the program in 2011. Initial program activities include in-class simulations, case studies, and other interactive learning experiences based on real situations and led by graduate students in the Masters of Public Health program at Dartmouth. In subsequent years, in a more intensive program for selected Howard Hughes Research Scholars, students will participate in a summer academy, follow-up summer seminars, a yearlong community-based research project, and written and oral presentation of their work. The project also includes a summer Teacher Institute to bring science and health teachers together with Dartmouth faculty and the Montshire Museum of Science to work on curriculum and teaching methods.
When: Ongoing
Cost: NA
Contact: Rosemary Orgren PhD, Assistant Professor of Community and Family Medicine and Director of the New Hampshire Area Health Education Center (AHEC) at (603) 653-0851.
Robotics Camps are weeklong, camp-based summer programs held at Dartmouth for middle school and high school students. The camps provide an introduction to robotics fundamentals and include applications that draw from the disciplines of computer science, mathematics and engineering. Sessions are led by Dartmouth College students and faculty, and topics change each year. In the 2011 camps, students will build and learn to control robots to achieve challenging tasks, such as navigating a maze and painting pictures. There will also be a “Girls Only” camp for 6th-10th graders, which offers girls a chance to design, build, and control robots, but includes special features such as a half-day project with digital arts professor and animator Lorie Loeb. Professor Devin Balkcom, who graduated with a Ph.D. in robotics from Carnegie Mellon University in 2004, where he built the first origami-folding robot, organizes the camps, which were founded by Suzanne Thompson in 2004. The camps are sponsored by the Department of Computer Science, the Neukom Institute for Computational Science, and the Balkcom robotics lab.
When: mornings or afternoons in July
Cost: There is no fee for the program; enrollments are determined by lottery.
Contact: E-mail RoboticsCamp or call Devin Balkcom., program director 646-8739.
Summer Enrichment at Dartmouth (SEAD) is a summer program that expands educational opportunities for promising high school students from selected under-resourced urban and rural schools while engaging the Dartmouth community in service learning. As a STEM outreach opportunity for Dartmouth faculty and graduate students, SEAD offers an unparalleled chance to contribute and learn with others from different, and often challenging, life experiences - learning that is at the core of a rich liberal arts education. For its high school students, SEAD encourages academic preparedness and personal growth through specially designed courses, year-round mentoring, and extensive interactions with successful college students. Content areas in recent years have included the STEM disciplines (science, technology engineering and mathematics).
When: Ongoing
Cost: NA
Contact: Jay Davis, Instructor/Director, SEAD; Department of Education, Tucker Foundation.
Karen E. Wetterhahn Science Poster Symposium, Dartmouth's annual poster session and celebration of undergraduate science research at Dartmouth, is open to the public. Area math and science teachers and their students are encouraged to attend. The Symposium, usually held the last Thursday in May, features a prominent woman scientist as keynote speaker and showcases the work of 80-100 enthusiastic undergraduate Dartmouth women and men across all of the sciences and engineering.
When: Thursday, May 24, 2012
Where: Class of 1978 Life Sciences Center
Contact: Kathy Scott Weaver, Assistant Director, Undergraduate Advising and Research (603) 646-3685.
Design for America is a national initiative that creates social change through design. Dartmouth's studio is part of a national network, and is seeking student and community participants. Design for America engages undergraduates and graduates in social impact design projects in collaboration with members of the Upper Valley community. Current projects are focused on education, dental health, and student-veteran services. Students apply design thinking strategies and knowledge gained from their for-credit academic courses to design and implement effective solutions to real problems, to transfer human-centered design skills to community partners, and to foster leadership skills for a new generation of university students. Participants represent diverse academic fields such as engineering, design, psychology, and economics, business, and medicine. Professional design coaches and academic faculty serve as mentors for projects. Design problems and solutions are identified in partnership with the community.
When: Ongoing
Cost: NA
Faculty Sponsor: Peter Robbie
Contact: To join Dartmouth's Design for America studio — or to suggest a community project — contact Sean Hammett, Alison Polton-Simon, or Lucas Yamamura.
Dartmouth LEGO League, which is run by students from the Thayer School of Engineering, sets up mentoring partnerships between Dartmouth students and local FIRST LEGO League teams each year for the entire season — September through November. FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology was founded by New Hampshire inventor and entrepreneur Dean Kamen in 1989 to inspire young people to be science and technology leaders by engaging them in mentor-based programs that build science, engineering and technology skills, that inspire innovation, and that foster well-rounded life capabilities including self-confidence, communication, and leadership. Since 2008, Thayer has also hosted the area's regional tournament, which takes place in the middle of November.
Where: Team mentoring takes place in local communities; the tournament takes place at Thayer School.
When: Annually, September – November, with this year’s tournament scheduled for mid-November, 2012.
Cost: Attendance at the tournament is free to the public; school teams must pay a registration fee, purchase a robot, and buy each year's playing field of missions. There is also a standard fee for tournament participation.
Contact: Dartmouth students interested in mentoring a FIRST LEGO League team and schools who would like to participate in the Dartmouth LEGO Leagues should contact Kelly Mallery , 425-220-8169 or Dartmouth LEGO League.
