Science Summer Camps

Camp Dates: June 5 - July 7

Camp Purpose: RISE provides students exposure to data science, statistics and original scientific research through coursework and guided group research projects.

Camp Description: The world is filled with too much data to analyze. Yet, the work of Data Scientists is to comb through thousands and millions of data points to make sense of the information and predictions from it. You can learn the statistics behind these analyses and work on a real data science project during our RISE in Data Science summer program.

Belmont has established the Belmont Data Collaborative (BDC) with the purpose of developing students with a data science skill sets. RISE-DS students will be led by faculty in the analysis and predictive utilization of healthcare data, focusing on outstanding questions in cardiovascular health. Students will not only gain data science skills, but will work in a team setting to advance a project and will improve their communication skills through presentations.

Finally, students will be enrolled in a 3-hr introductory class and will receive college credit in this class for their participation.

Any specific requirements for participants: Students must have an overall GPA of 3.0 as well as a math and science GPA of 3.0. Students are not allowed to take a vacation during the RISE program.

Instructors: Dr. Christina Davis & Dr. Will Best

• You can learn more about these faculty on our Faculty Page

Camp Dates: July 10 - July 14

Camp Purpose: The participants will learn how to use creativity and logic to create their own pieces of interactive media and video games. The camp combines design and basic programming to make a unique version of a computer game.

The camp differs from other coding camps as it allows for the students to interact with computer science and programming concepts applied to games. The camp is focused on creating, developing and coding games, not on just playing games or coding in general. Furthermore, the camp introduces concepts on how development and coding in general takes place on teams.

Camp Description: Developing a video game uses all parts of your brain: creativity, logic, design and problem-solving. If you enjoy playing games and have a strong analytical mind, you are going to love learning about what it takes to develop one! The Game Development and Programming camp will help students bridge the gap between arts and STEM as they practice creativity, critical thinking, communication and collaboration. All participants will learn about: creativity, coding, logic, variables, conditionals, sequencing, looping and physics-based game design.

The program of the camp will have the participants in the camp will work during the week to develop different aspects of a game. Each day the kids will engage in activities to learn about coding and game development concepts followed by guided hands on exercises they will perform individually and in groups to apply the concepts learned to the game they are coding.

Any specific requirements for participants: HS students at the junior or senior level. Ideally, the student has taken algebra.

Instructors: Dr. Esteban Parra Rodriguez and Dr. Rudolph Bedeley

• You can learn more about these faculty on our Faculty Page

Camp Dates: July 17 - July 21

Camp Purpose: This course will introduce students to higher level mathematics frequently taught after the calculus sequence, focusing on discrete mathematics. While the concepts are challenging, they require little background knowledge and are quite accessible for enthusiastic high school students.

Camp Description: Do advanced mathematical concepts like graph theory and discrete mathematics sound inaccessible? They aren’t! Many of the important mathematics concepts taught in advanced classes actually require little background knowledge and high school students can learn them. Participants in our camp will unlock their mathematical problem solving skills by exploring many types of problems within the broad category of discrete mathematics. We will practice forming arguments in number theory and set theory. Then we will see how to visualize problems using graph theory. We will focus on topological graph theory and use graphs to analyze combinatorial games. Whether you’ve heard of these terms before or not, if you love math and want to explore beyond what is taught in the typical high school series, come join us this summer!

Any specific requirements for participants: All high school students are eligible. The only prerequisite is algebra. Some understanding of geometry would be helpful, but is not required.

Instructors: Dr. Blake Dunshee

• You can learn more about these faculty on our Faculty Page

Camp Dates: July 24 - July 28

Camp Purpose: Camp participants will learn to apply physics modeling and Python programming to systematically investigate the motion of a toy car.

Camp Description: This summer, come learn how to use the power of physics to improve your understanding of some of the physics that goes into designing a car. By applying basic physics principles, such as force and conservation of energy, we will develop a Python-based computational model of the motion of a toy car. We will then test the model and compare experimental results to our theoretical ones. This camp will be a combination of hands on experimentation and mathematical modeling with Python. Come learn what it means to be a scientist or engineer!

Any specific requirements for participants: Camp participants should be in high school and have taken at least algebra.

Instructors: Dr. Davon Ferrara, Dr. Krista McBride, Dr. Steven Robinson, Dr. Matthew Zeh, Jeff Gustafson

• You can learn more about these faculty on our Faculty Page

Camp Dates: July 31 - August 4

Camp Purpose: From Brain to Behavior at Belmont (BBB) builds critical thinking skills for participants in psychology and neuroscience through hands-on activities related to brain structure, neuronal function and human behavior.

Camp Description: Do you think about thinking? How does the heap of cells in our brains create our complex ideas and behavior? Join us as a BBB scholar for a pre-college experience to dive deep into neuroscience and psychology! BBB participants will conduct experiments and hands-on activities such as dissecting a real sheep brain, administering psychological tests and debunking popular myths in psychology. The program will blend interactive lectures and student discussions with laboratory time. Throughout the week, students will work towards a capstone project to summarize their work throughout the week as well as how to apply this newfound knowledge throughout their lives.

Any specific requirements for participants: All students from 9^th - 12^th grades are welcome.

Instructors: Dr. Jordyn Wilcox and Abigail Heller

• You can learn more about these faculty on our Faculty Page