Several of this year's courses are back by popular demand. There is a concentration on career exploration in this year's Institute, and all students will also have the opportunitiy to experience workshops in leadership or problem-solving.
The Life of a Lawyer
Students will experience a broad range of activities from the traditional law classroom setting to preparing for and participating in mock civil and criminal trials. Participating students will examine how laws are created, and read and discuss landmark cases and opinions from the United States Supreme Court and state courts from around the country. Students will also visit courtrooms in the area where they will watch live trials, as well as tour the Ninth District Court of Appeals. Students will explore the substantive areas of law including constitutional, criminal, contractual, and tort law, as well as transactional business law and basic estate planning. Ethics and the Code of Professional Responsibility will be key topics discussed by the group. Other learning activities will include discussions related to the skills lawyers need in order to successfully represent clients in and out of court. Each student will prepare for a mock trial. In addition, they will learn how witnesses - including expert witnesses - play a major role in trial, and how a lawyer must prepare each witness. The course helps students to understand the contiguous nature of its concepts during the culminating activity. Students participate in a mock civil and criminal trial, conducted by a judge in a courtroom setting. [Back to Top]
You're in Business!
An overview of the functional areas of business including economic systems, competition, ethics and social responsibility, forms of business ownership, entrepreneurship, management (motivation of employees, organizational structures, human resource management), marketing of goods and services (product concerns, pricing issues, distribution and supply chain, and promotion choices), accounting, money and financial institutions, and finance. Each module will be related to the development of a section of a business plan for a class developed business or product. A personal career management process module will be utilized on the final day of each week (Three 2-hr sessions in all). Attention will be paid to assessing and setting career goals, creating cover letters and resumes, honing oral presentation skills, personal finance, and assessment and development of team and leadership skills. Include international aspects to take advantage of IGB. [Back to Top]
Engineering Technology
Students will participate in a wide variety of engineering and engineering technology experiences during the Engineering & Science Technology Workshop. Students will be exposed to the differences between engineering and engineering technology. Students will get to use surveyor systems, including Global Positioning (GPS), to make various measurements and find buried treasure. Learning about and testing construction materials like wood and concrete and mechanical design materials like steel, aluminum, plastic, and wood will be covered in this workshop. Industrial chemistry is also part of the workshop. The use of Computer-Aided-Drafting-and-Design as an engineering/engineering technology tool using AutoCAD Inventor and/or Solidworks 2-D and 3-D software is also part of this workshop. [Back to Top]
The Polymer Scientist
The Department of Polymer Science, through the Summer Honors Institute, seeks to educate high school students in the areas of science, math, and engineering. Now that this city has moved from the Rubber Capital to the Polymer Capital and with over 500 polymer-related companies in Northeast Ohio alone, students educated in the field of polymers are in greater demand. Polymers impact on 90% of all industry (especially, high technology areas of information science, computer science, and life science). An educational experience in this field will prepare students for further education in all areas of the physical sciences. Specifically, the department will provide an exciting and informative curriculum that utilizes classroom teaching, hands-on laboratory experiments, demonstrations of state-of-the-art experimentation and instrumentation, and field trips to industrial research and manufacturing sites. The program will begin with a basic introduction to chemistry and physics. Students will quickly begin conducting laboratory experiments that demonstrate the techniques of polymer chemistry, polymer physics, and polymer technology. The students will learn the basics of making new polymers, use analytical equipment to characterize polymer materials, and determine the industrial use of polymers. [Back to Top]
The Color Photographer
This course covers fine art photography issues such as concepts of communication, self-expression, aesthetics (composition and design), and presentation. The student will learn new vocabulary for more precise discussion of their creative work. The in-depth understanding of camera usage, color theory of light and pigments, and printing color photographs will be covered. Creation of color images and photograms (camera-less photographic images made from laying objects on paper and exposing through them) will enable discussion of two-dimensional design issues. Professional lighting equipment and studio lighting techniques for commercial portraiture will be used for a group portraiture assignment done in the photo studio at the School of Art. Additional outside shooting assignments will be given. Participants will also develop an appreciation for the differences between commercial and fine art photography, and learn about career choices in the field. [Back to Top]
Behind the Scenes of Broadcast News
Students in this course will experience an overview of the process of newsgathering and presentation. Topics will include selection of stories, resources focused on stories, and the impact of corporate policy on news product. Also explored will be the impact of media consolidation and group ownership on local broadcast news. Students will participate in small group discussions, role playing, guest lectures, student-led discussions, individual writing and problem solving to create a final studio video production. [Back to Top]
CSI: Forensics
This course will focus on biology as it relates to forensics. Students will become acquainted with the latest technologies used in forensic science such as PCR and immunological based assays. Students will learn the importance of the integrity of evidence and how the evidence can be used to identify a criminal. In addition students will learn how the forensic scientist can use skeletal remains to gain valuable information. The instructor will engage the students in simulations that will mirror actual problem-based scenarios that professional in those fields often encounter.
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Alice in Programland
This course will present fundamental concepts in object-oriented programming (OOP) through the use of an innovative 3-D virtual world programming environment called Alice. The Alice system was developed at Carnegie Mellon University to provide a gentle introduction to programming that is accessible to a wide audience. It has been successfully used in middle schools through college. Students will learn basic programming concepts as well as event-driven and object-oriented programming techniques. Storyboarding will be used as a design tool, and stepwise refinement practiced as student ideas evolve into finished animations. For more information on Alice, see http://www.alice.org
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What's the Secret
This course will focus on the math-based sciences of cryptanalysis and steganography. Cryptanalysis is the mathematical process of code-breaking and is used in careers such as those found at the National Security Agency. Steganography is the art and science of concealing the actual existence of information and is used in careers such as those found within the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Homeland Security. The instructors will engage the students in simulations that will mirror actual problem-based scenarios that professionals in those fields often encounter.
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