In addition to classroom learning and connecting to the Internet, the students will take field trips to Galveston Bay to analyze the water, compare it to fresh water sources and identify organisms. Funded by the Howard Hughes Institute for Undergraduate Biological Science Education Program, the day camp will run from July 10 through July 21. Girls were selected for the program based on essays and grades. On-line Galveston Bay also is the focus of a program offered to 24 HISD teachers in grades three through eight. Instead of stipends, the teachers will leave the Galveston Bay On-line program equipped with an assortment of classroom materials and equipment, such as modems and salt water aquariums, Kirkpatrick said.
Several projects are available.
One of the most popular monitors the behavior of mockingbirds and grackles on campus. Not only do students band the birds and observe their behaviors, they also do blood analysis and genetic testing to determine the relationships among the birds. Funded with a National Institutes of Health grant, Cooper said the program was developed with the hope that it will inspire enthusiasm for the sciences in other youth when the summer students return to their home schools. The program runs from mid-June through August. Spend a Summer with a Scientist Richard Tapia, professor of computational and applied mathematics, runs two programs, Spend a Summer with a Scientist and the Mathematical and Computational Sciences Awareness Workshops.