Program Overview
Headwaters 2024 Girls Science Camp returns this year! We will have a week of GIRLS ONLY science and camping at the Truckee Donner Land Trust’s Webber Lake Campground.
In addition, girls can sign up for the Headwaters’ Summer Research Experience, for a full summer of science.
Foundations of the program:
1. Scientific Research
Students work with an all female cohort of peers at Webber Lake and with professional female 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 female scientists for guidance through their project. These career-scientists can help with recommendations for how to turn an idea into an executable project.
3. Female Empowerment
A female-specific cohort provides support for participants to explore the science field in ways that are unique.
4. 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.
2024 Program Details
Dates: Week of July 5-13, exact dates TBA
Camping: Participants will camp at our Webber Lake study site. Parents will drop off campers on Wednesday, July 5th after dinner and pick up on Saturday, July 8th by noon.
Location: The campground is located at Webber Lake in Truckee, California at the Truckee Donner Land Trust campground.
Ages: For girls entering 7th-12th grade
Cost: $500
Registration Opens February 1st
Financial Assistance is available. Apply here
General Camp Outline
Students will create:
- an original research project complete with research methods and data collection
- a polished research presentation
- 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 5-8.
Potential Activities (Schedule TBA):
Day One: Drop-off 6 pm -7 pm (please eat dinner first), Set up tents, 7:30 pm Welcome Campfire, parents leave
- Learn environmental science and ecology data collection methods from our staff scientists and mentors, Scientific Literacy
- Scientific Question Asking, Methods Development, and Data Collection
- Data Collection and Service Project for the Truckee Donner Land Trust
- Finish Data Collection, Data Analysis, Presentation Building
- Presentations for the Truckee Donner Land Trust Hike
- Data Analysis and Presentation Building Session
- 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 21st.
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.
