Young Women's Summer Institute

Young Women's Summer Institute logo

What is the Young Women's Summer Institute?

YWSI is a week-long program sponsored by the Ohio Supercomputer Center (OSC) for middle school girls in Ohio. Designed to provide hands-on experience with computers, math, science and engineering, YWSI helps girls develop an interest in these subjects by allowing them to work on practical, interesting scientific problems using the latest computer technology.

Teachers: Download our camp flyer to post in your classroom!

Who is eligible to apply?

Ohio residents in 6th and 7th grade (in the 2022-2023 school year) and K-12 science and math teachers. 

Past YWSI class standing at the entrance of OSC.

Program Details

Dates

Sunday, July 9, 2023 to Saturday, July 15, 2023

Location

Ohio Supercomputer Center
1224 Kinnear Road
Columbus, Ohio 43212

Application Deadline

April 16, 2023
We will begin notifying accepted students in early May 2023. 

Past YWSI attendee testing a water sample at Batelle Darby Creek.

Cost

$264 per attendee.

The fee covers housing, meals and program tuition, including laboratory visits, insurance, chaperones, social activities and equipment costs. 

Projects

Attendees will participate in projects that require them to analyze data and visualize results. Individual projects introduce fundamental computer skills and provide students with an understanding of a variety of computer applications. During the program, students will become familiar with spreadsheet and presentation software and build their own web pages using the HTML language. Read more about these projects.

YWSI attendee at Chadwick Arboretum

Schedule

An overview schedule for YWSI. For more detail, visit the tentative schedule.

Day Activities
Sunday Students arrive; Ice breaker; Evening activity - Games
Monday Opening remarks & keynote speech; Intro to rivers and effects of humans on wildlife; Evening activity - Swimming
Tuesday Field Trip: Big Darby; Water quality measurements; Electro Fishing; Campus Tour
Wednesday Select group projects; PowerPoint & Presentation skills; Introduction to Modeling; Evening activity - Career night
Thursday Work on group projects; Look at data in Excel; Evening activity - Webpage creation
Friday Work on group projects; Impromptu speeches; Presentation dry run; Evening activity - Scrapbooking
Saturday Announcements and Final Survey; Welcome and Overview of the Week; Presentations
 

Contact Information

(614) 688-8300 or si-contact@osc.edu

Program Impact

Assessment Survey Results

After completing the post-YWSI survey, students and parents alike note a greater confidence among the girls in their use of technology, math and science classes, school presentations, and problem-solving abilities.

Activities and Targeted Outcomes

Each activity has been designed with a targeted outcome in mind. For example, see several of the activities below. 

Activity Description Outcomes
Science project: discover the human activities that impact water quality Use data from a real watershed to relate land use, water pollution, and habitat information to the biological and physical quality of the stream Uses qualitative and quantitative data, interdisciplinary group project, holistic study, hands-on, constructivist approach, topic focuses on middle school science standards
Introductory games with science terminology Use the terms and definitions of science materials thry will need for their project Hands-on, not competitive, makes learning fun
Career night Career review with women of scientific and technical achievements; play a career game created by OSC staff Provides role models, knowledge of career options, game constructed with prizes for everyone, not competitive

YWSI 2022 Recap Video