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What Is Catapult?
This summer you can work
with the faculty and staff of Rose-Hulman Institute of
Technology in our classrooms and labs. It's the kind of thing for someone who'd rather learn to program a computer or
fabricate a metal model for aerodynamic drag tests than just daydream. We call it
Operation Catapult, and we invite you to join us.
Operation Catapult is not a summer camp, nor is it an "honors seminar."
Now in its 44th year, Operation Catapult is a unique summer
program conducted by Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology for high school
students who've completed their junior year.
Beyond stimulating your brain there are three central objectives to Operation Catapult.
1. Integrate and supplement your previous learning.
2. Explore fundamental scientific and engineering principles and systems.
3. Provide an opportunity for group living in a campus setting.
We think this program may be just what you're looking for because it goes beyond the
classroom into the realms of engineering and applied science. One of the important
features of Operation Catapult is the exposure to engineering and applied science through
project work. Each Catapulter will work on a project, to be selected either from a list of
suggestions or self-initiated because it presents a challenge to tackle. However, since
few projects in the "real world" are handled solo, the project work in Catapult
will be done by groups of two to four students.
Click For Project Examples
The projects needn't be in an area of your expertise. In fact, the faculty urges you to
choose a topic you know very little about but where you are intellectually curious enough
to want to learn something new. Your group will be on its own to design and conduct
experiments; collect, observe, analyze and interpret the data; reach your own conclusions;
and make recommendations for further study. In the end, following the submission of written and oral reports, you
will feel as if you've accomplished something. You have tackled a real, tangible problem;
you've solved it; and you know how to prove your solution.
In addition to the project experience, you'll get a healthy share of demonstrations,
lectures (guest and otherwise), and field trips.
A tour of one or more industrial plants will be conducted to see the complexities
involved in typical industrial operations, plant layout, movement of materials, control of
the process, etc., leading to the final product. You'll also be able to grasp the
sociological implications of science as it affects thousands, even millions, of people.
Your instructors will be Rose-Hulman professors who are accustomed to teaching at the
undergraduate level. These profs have been chosen for their diversity of tastes, plus
their interest in and their ability to communicate with students like you. To encourage
your exploration, the faculty will guide and advise rather than dictate. Also working very
closely with you will be a select group of Rose-Hulman upper-class students. Because of
the complexity of many of the experiments in Catapult, the staff can assist you in the
fabrication and assembly of your experimental systems.
What Will You Get?
From
Operation Catapult you'll get a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
Very few high school
juniors have a chance to go off to college, meet students from across the country and the
world, and set up and run experiments (some of which were considered very advanced only a
few years ago). You are challenged to utilize every bit of learning
and ingenuity you've absorbed in eleven years of school, carry out projects most people
have never heard of, and have a blast the whole time you're doing it.
This is what you have to look forward to at Operation Catapult.
Requirements
To be
eligible you must be a student who will enter your senior year of high school in the fall
of 2010. In addition, you must have completed three years of math and one year of
chemistry or physics. Plus, we need the scores of any standardized tests you may have
taken. |
