June 22-27 for Campers having completed 7^th-10^th grade

 
This camp is for young people who like to DO science. No Books, just lots of action. Explore the biology of the creek and lagoon on campus. Investigate a “Crime Scene” and use the telescope in the observatory to photograph the moon. Travel to Rockford’s Burpee Museum to visit the lab where they are preparing the skeleton of “Jane” the nanotyrannus discovered by their team in Montana. Mike Henderson, Burpee’s paleontologist, leads us on a fossil hunt (different geological age than visited last year.) Professor Ballantine, the head of the Chemistry Laboratories at NIU again provides an afternoon of new chemistry demonstrations and activities. Campers get to work with liquid nitrogen and other materials that are not available at home or school.

June 15-20 for Campers having completed 10^th –12^th grade

Spend the week DOING the kind of science experiments and activities that high school students normally do not get the opportunity to do during the school year. A major theme throughout the week is robotics. Use the Lego Mindstorms for Schools with the Robolab software that was developed and is used at MIT. (This is not the same software you have at home if you own a Lego Mindstorm kit; rather it uses the same interface as LabVIEW, powerful software used in research labs.) There will be at least 3 robotics challenges of increasing difficulty. Challenges appropriate for the novice as well as the more experienced camper. Campers work in pairs so everyone gets the opportunity to participate.

 
Make use of equipment in the NIU Department of Physics such as a muon detector and one of the scanning electron microscopes to DO experiments with cosmic particles and photographing diffraction patterns of crystals. Visit at least one of the National Laboratories in northern Illinois
 and meet with Physicists researching exciting new frontiers in Nanoscience and Particle Physics. Check web site for more!

BOTH CAMPS Campers design and test their own liquid nitrogen propelled rockets. For fun we have lots of “physics toys” such as flying rings and disks, water balloons, and of course the collisions of bowling, air hockey and billiards in the Huskie Den in Holmes Student Center.

More detailed information, photos of last year, and scholarship opportunities can be found at our web site: www.physics.niu.edu/~scicamp. Science Camp Director for both sessions is Pati Sievert, the Outreach Coordinator for the Physics Department. Pati is a former High School Physics teacher with a M.S. in Physics and many years of experience working with young people in camps and schools. The staff is comprised of NIU faculty, staff and science students. Questions? You can contact the director by email sieveret@phyusics.niu.edu or call (815) 753-6418.

The residential fee for the camp, including room and board, is $475.  Early bird special registration, before June 1, is only $450.  Returning campers are also entitled to a $25 discount.