E.S.S.R.E. Summer Internship
Environmental Science Summer Research Experience for Young Women (E.S.S.R.E.)
Launched in
July of 2001, the Environmental Science Summer Research Experience for Young
Women is a three week summer internship in environmental field studies for 9th and
10th grade
girls from the greater Baltimore area.
Participants explore the soil chemistry and
biota of the Roland Park Country School campus, author and test lab activities
for studying soil microenvironments, and adapt these labs for dissemination and
use in a wide variety of educational situations and socio-economic conditions.
The program's primary objectives are to give this target audience the
opportunity to engage in authentic, self-directed primary research into the
ecological roles of soil microbes and, as a result, to nurture their interest in
science in general as a possible career option.
For three weeks during the summer of 2015, 15 young women
from 5 different high schools in the Baltimore area including Roland Park
Country School, Notre Dame Prep, Friends School, Bais Yaakov, and Randallstown
High school interned at Roland Park Country School with the Environmental
Science Summer Research Experience. These interns were employed to perform a
biota survey, or an environmental “snapshot”, of the four microclimates found in
the RPCS backwoods. After conducting the survey, which includes a plethora of
chemical and physical tests on the microclimates, the interns divided into
research groups. These groups designed and conducted an experiment based off of
discrepancies in the data collected.
Below are links to the research paper and website that my group of four young women created: