What’s Your Teens Plans For The Summer?

So what are your kids planning to do with their summer? Lay around? Watch TV? Play video games? Hang out at the mall? Well, how about rafting, backpacking and climbing in Yosemite while earning college credits and getting valuable experience working in the field with naturalists? That’s what you get when you sign up for one of the many programs being offered by the Yosemite Institute this summer.

One of the newest programs takes teens on a backpacking adventure in the Yosemite high country to experience back country life while learning what it’s like to be a naturalist and getting some hands-on experience.

Yosemite Yosemite Institute : These courses will be two weeks in length and focused on student participation in field research within Yosemite National Park. Students will have the unique opportunity to work with park scientists and researchers investigating real questions about the biodiversity and health of the Yosemite National Park ecosystem. These new courses will offer a physically and academically rewarding summer experience to students interested in backpacking and in environmental science field research. Courses will focus on several strands:

* Wilderness skills and backpacking
* Sierra Nevada ecology
* Specific research questions

During the field research component of the course, students will collect and analyze data in the field, then prepare reports and presentations to be given to National Park Resource Managers and Scientists. Potential research projects include:

* Hydrology study of the tributaries of the Tuolumne with a focus on aquatic insect biodiversity.
* Studies of terrestrial invertebrate diversity of mountain meadows.”

The program cost is $1500 but that includes all fees, instruction, course credit, food, transportation and equipment for the participant.

Check out the Yosemite Institute website for more information or call them at (209) 379-9511. Students must be entering the 11th grade and have completed at least 1 year of High School Biology.

Thanks, Kasha!

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