Summer Science Program

The Summer Science Program (SSP) is an intense six-week summer program for intellectually talented high school students. The program is based on a collaborative research project in celestial mechanics. Students study astronomy, physics, spherical trigonometry, and calculus while working to take photographic plates of an asteroid, measure its position, and calculate its orbit. The measured asteroid coordinates (not the orbit results) are submitted to the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. A large number of alumni from the program eventually matriculate at prestigious institutions such as Caltech, MIT, Stanford and Ivy League schools.

Established in 1959 at The Thacher School, the Summer Science Program now takes place at two locations, New Mexico Tech in Socorro, New Mexico, and Besant Hill School in Ojai, California (northwest of Los Angeles). The curriculum is identical at the two campuses.

History

The Summer Science Program is one of the oldest programs of its kind in the world, and the only one managed and largely funded by its own alumni.

In 1959, officials at Thacher and Caltech were concerned that the country's top high school students were not being adequately informed and inspired about careers in the physical sciences. They decided to create an intense summer program to challenge such students and inspire them with a taste of "real science." They received assistance from a number of leading California colleges, including Caltech, UCLA, Claremont Colleges, and Stanford. Financial support came from Hughes Aircraft.

SSP was taught in its first year by Dr. Paul Routly. He continued with SSP until 1962. In 1960, Dr. George Abell joined the program for his first of more than 20 summers at SSP.

The first year, SSP had 26 students. Less than two years after the launch of Sputnik 1 and the start of the Space Race, excitement about astronomy was high. The students used data from the "Russian ephemeris" (Ephemyeredi Mahlikh Planyet) to find asteroids to photograph, measured the positions, and submitted the data to the Minor Planet Center at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. Given the Cold War fervor, the students were excited to find when they calculated the orbit of 9 Metis that their data resulted in a significant correction to the Russian ephemeris. [http://www.summerscience.org/program/russerror.php]

In 1991, the National Academies' Commission on Physical Sciences, Mathematics, and Applications observed that "All participants go on to college. About 37 percent of the pre-1985 graduates are now working in science and medicine, and 34 percent in engineering, mathematics, and computer science (including the founder of Lotus Development Corporation)." [http://www.nap.edu/books/0309043832/html/301.html]

A significant threat to the continuation of SSP came in 1999. The Thacher School decided to make significant changes to its entire program, and SSP no longer fit. 1999 would be the last year the program was held at Thacher.

A group of SSP alumni saved the program in the form of a new nonprofit corporation, Summer Science Program, Inc. They found funding, largely from the alumni community; and they found a new site for the program. Beginning in 2000, SSP has been at the Happy Valley School, located just across the Ojai Valley from The Thacher School. In 2007, Happy Valley School was renamed Besant Hill School.

The alumni effort was so successful that they soon began looking to expand the program. In 2003 a second campus opened at New Mexico Tech in Socorro with the support of New Mexico Tech, Los Alamos and Sandia national laboratories, and others.

The program now takes 36 students each year at each campus.

A measuring engine once used by the famous astronomer Edwin Hubble at the Mt. Wilson Observatory is employed at the Ojai campus.

Distinguished guest speakers have included Maarten Schmidt, who has done pioneering work in quasars; the late Richard Feynman, a Nobel laureate in physics; James Randi, magician and debunker of pseudoscience; Mitch Kapor, founder of Lotus Development; and Paul MacCready, creator of the Gossamer Condor and Gossamer Albatross.

Primarily juniors are accepted, but a few sophomores may be selected each year. SSP 2006 accepted 3 out of 40 sophomores and 69 out of 218 juniors.

Astronomical Work

Students at SSP perform astronomical observations and photograph asteroids with a telescope. Here is what a typical Astrographic plate looks like:After identifying the asteroid and nearby stars, their positions on the plate are carefully measured. These data can be used to determine the position of the asteroid at the timethe photograph was taken.

Currently, while astrograph plates are still used by the program for nostalgic purposes, digital CCD astrophotgraphy is used for a more accurate determination of an asteroid's position. Students take three of these CCD images and determine their asteroids coordinates. From there, they write an orbit determination in the Python programming language or IDL for the unlucky ones (Laplacian method of orbit determination) which uses coordinates to compute the six classical orbital elements.

External links

*http://www.summerscience.org/
*http://www.summerscience.org/program/index.php
*http://www.besanthill.org