SSC-9450343 Philadelphia School Dist. Philadelphia, PA Smith, Lynnette "Central East Regional Science Camp" For four weeks during the summers of 1994, 1995, and 1996, the School District of Philadelphia will conduct the "Central East Regional Science Camp (CERSC)" at Edison High School for fifty minority middle school students. CERSC, which will pool students from nine middle schools in the Central East Region of the School District, is designed to encourage minority students who may have questioned their ability to "do" science, or questioned the relevance of science in their daily lives, to understand how science does relate to them, that careers in science are open to them, and that staying in school and continuing their science education is the best path to these careers. Participants, who will begin the project as upcoming seventh grade students, will work with their peers and the project staff each summer to develop science fair projects about the environment. Project staff will conduct activities in four major areas--research, laboratory work, problem-solving, and computer skills--to help students with the development of their projects, and will also take students on field trips to environmental sites in the Philadelphia area. During the school year, students will continue to develop their science fair projects, meeting monthly with their "mentors," science teachers at their home-based schools, to get feedback on their projects. In March of every year of the project, the participants will enter their science fair projects in the George Washington Carver Science Fair. Students will also participate with their parents in the school-year Super Science Saturday Academy programs held by the National Organization for the Professional advancement of Black Chemists and Chemical Engineers to learn about careers in science, mathematics, and engineering and to participate in problem-solving, hands-on activities in science.
