Ohio Wesleyan University | SLEUTHS Summer Honors Institute: Science

Institute Dates
June 21-26, 2009

Welcome

Contact Information
E-mail: sleuths@owu.edu
Phone: (740) 368-3939
Director: Susan K. Paxton

Date of Institute: June 21-26, 2009

OHIO WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY is pleased to offer SLEUTHS Summer Honors Institute: Science, a one-week summer residential program, for current gifted high school freshmen and sophomores interested in the sciences: biology, chemistry, mathematics, and physics. SLEUTHS is sponsored by Ohio Wesleyan University and funded by a grant from the Ohio Department of Education. Morning and afternoon classes are taught by Ohio Wesleyan University professors. These courses will expose participants to the excitement of hands-on scientific research in a laboratory setting. Students will learn to use scientific methods, and they will gain a better perspective of the vast array of career options in the sciences.

The SLEUTHS Summer Honors Institute will be hosted on Ohio Wesleyan’s campus in the newly renovated, state-of-the-art Conrades♦Wetherell Science Center.

Participants, recruited from high schools across the state of Ohio, experience dorm living on Ohio Wesleyan’s beautiful campus. Students and adult counselors maintain a family group atmosphere, sharing meals and planned evening recreational and social activities after the day’s classes are over.

Participants will have the opportunity to:

Ask and learn to answer the scientist’s favorite question: Why?!
Learn what factors affect the quality of experimental data and how these factors can be controlled to optimize the experimental process.
Solve a crime using concepts of heat as a way to determine time of death.
Use Gas Chromatography to determine the accelerant used in a case of arson.
Learn how insects are used in forensic science.
Simulate radioactive decay using 1,000 dice.
Measure radon concentrations and find out how this radioactive gas decays.
Analyze limestone samples for percentage of calcium and magnesium.
Learn about ballistics and their relationship to firearms.
Discuss scientific ethics.
Experience classes taught by OWU professors.

Enrollment is limited and applicants who meet criteria will be accepted on a first-come basis.

Eligibility

Applicants must:

Be current freshmen or sophomores in high school who meet state criteria for gifted according to Ohio Administrative Code 3301-51-15
Have completed, by June 2009, one science course if a freshman and two science courses if a sophomore
Be an Ohio resident

Cost

The cost for SLEUTHS Summer Honors Institute is $238 for one week.

Aid is available to support full and partial scholarships to defray program costs.
Many full scholarships are awarded.
Applications for scholarships are part of the application package.

Location

The OWU campus is located 30 miles north of Columbus in Delaware, Ohio. For more information about the campus, go to Driving Directions and Maps.