Program Overview
An environmental science camp at the Truckee Donner Land Trust’s Webber Lake Campground for students going into 7th grade and older.
Foundations of the program:
1. Scientific Research
Students work with a cohort of peers at Webber Lake and with professional scientist mentors to create questions around their environmental topics of interest and develop these questions into a research project.
2. Mentorship
The students will be mentored by scientists for guidance through their project. These career-scientists can help with recommendations for how to turn an idea into an executable project.
3. Professional caliber scientific exploration
Participants are given the chance to practice science just like a professional would, analyzing data and finally creating a research talk. If they would like to create a paper they should also join our Summer Research Experience and at the end, they submit their paper for publication. They can get all of their data collected for the summer-long program during this week at Webber Lake.
2023 Program Details
Camping: Participants will camp at our Webber Lake study site from July 9-14. Parents will drop off campers on Sunday, July 9th after dinner and pick up on Friday, July 14th by noon.
Location: The campground is located at Webber Lake in Truckee, California at the Truckee Donner Land Trust campground.
Ages: For students entering 7th-12th grade.
Cost: $800
Registration opens February 1st.
Financial Assistance is available. Apply here.
General Camp Outline
Students will create:
Students will create:
- An original research project complete with research methods and data collection.
- A polished research presentation. This can be used as a starting point for science fair or other bigger projects.
- The opportunity to join the Summer Research Program to publish their paper.
Schedule: participants will camp at Webber Lake to do data collection from July 9-14.
Sunday, July 9: Drop-off 6-7 pm (please eat dinner first), Set up tents, 7:30 pm welcome campfire, parents leave
Monday, July 10: Learn environmental science and ecology data collection methods from our staff scientists and mentors, scientific literacy
Tuesday, July 11: Scientific question asking, methods development, and data collection
Wednesday, July 12: data collection and service project for the Truckee Donner Land Trust
Thursday, July 13: Finish data collection, data analysis, presentation building
Friday, July 14: 9 am Presentations for the Truckee Donner Land Trust Hike, 12 pm pickup
Monday, July 17: 6 pm data analysis and presentation-building session
Thursday, July 20: 6 pm live recorded digital presentations
For a full summer option, you can also signup for the Research Experience and use this program as a way to collect your data for that project.
Students will gather virtually following the program to present their research to friends and family via live stream on Thursday, July 20th.
Contact:
Please contact Bryn Anderson: bryn@headwatersscienceinstitute.org with any questions.
Camp Sponsors
Staffing and Emergency Policies:
Headwaters Science Institute is committed to maintaining the highest safety and security standards for our programs. When your children are in our care, you can trust that they are safe.
- All employees and contractors are background checked before they start working with us. We use a national-level background check program called National Crime Search (nationalcrimesearch.com) that searches all states and county records for any criminal records, sex & violent offenders, and includes a terrorist search.
- Our staff members are all first-aid and CPR certified. Some are Wilderness First Responder certified as well.
- We have a safety plan for every field site we use and know where the nearest fire station is located. We are never more than a few minutes walk to the nearest road.
- In the unlikely event of an emergency, we always work in areas that are easily served by 911. Our field site on Donner Summit is less than 2 miles from the nearest fire station with full-time EMT services and the hospital is a short 10-minute ride away.
