8 Summer Physics Programs for Middle School Students in Chicago
- Stephen Turban
- 3 days ago
- 5 min read
If you are a physics enthusiast in Chicago, you can explore your passions through academic programs this summer. Through these programs, you can enhance your knowledge and build practical skills. The rigorous curriculum prepares you for advanced academics and a career in the subject. You also get the opportunity to meet industry professionals and faculty who provide insights into their careers.
Hands-on activities are often embedded into these programs, helping you develop problem-solving, collaboration, and critical thinking skills. Interactions with other students interested in physics allow you to build a network of peers. Here are some summer physics programs in Chicago for you to consider.
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Highly selective
Location: Virtual
Cost: Varies; financial aid available
Dates: 8 weeks, varies by cohort
Application Deadline: Varies according to cohort
Eligibility: Students in grades 6 to 8
With Lumiere’s Junior Explorer Program, you can conduct original research in a subject of your choice. The program pairs you with PhD mentors from prestigious universities, such as Harvard, Oxford, MIT, and Princeton, who are experts in their fields, including physics. You enhance your understanding of physics by conducting research under their mentorship. As you progress, you learn how to read and interpret academic literature, build research questions, and create outputs such as a high school-level research paper or case study, which enables you to build crucial skills. Through feedback and writing coaching sessions, you develop scientific communication skills. You can opt for the Junior Research and Publication Program, where you can publish your research in academic journals.
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Not specified
Location: Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, IL
Cost: Ranges from $500 – $4,500
Dates: Varies by program
Application Deadline: May 8
Eligibility: Students in grades 6 – 8
Elevate College Prep offers a range of programs in different subjects for middle schoolers. In the Rocket Engineering track, you delve into aerospace and engineering, which consider physics concepts. You participate in hands-on construction, design challenges, and guided experimentation. The course combines theoretical principles with practical activities to solidify your learnings. Beyond academics, you can make the most of campus activities in a collaborative environment.
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Not specified
Location: Virtual
Cost: Varies; financial aid available
Dates: 25 hours over 10 weeks (on weekends) during the spring cohort and 25 hours over 2 weeks (on weekdays) during the summer cohort.
Application Deadline: Rolling deadlines
Eligibility: Students in grades 6 – 8
Ambitious middle schoolers consider an interdisciplinary program that blends physics and technology can opt for Veritas AI’s AI Trailblazers program. Here, you learn the fundamentals of AI and machine learning. The course teaches you a diverse range of topics like Python, data analysis, regression, image classification, neural networks, and AI ethics. The theoretical component is followed by a practical project where you apply the concepts you have learned. This project must solve a real-world physics problem by developing a technological solution. In the past, students have built a machine-learning model to classify music genres and a machine-learning algorithm to provide a custom list of educational resources based on selected specifications.
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Selective
Location: Northwestern University, Evanston, IL
Cost: $3,665 (tuition) + $2,405 (residential fee)
Dates: June 28 – July 17
Application Deadline: One week before the start date
Eligibility: Students entering grades 6 – 8 who meet the Indigo-tier criteria
Northwestern’s CTD offers a range of programs in science and engineering for talented middle schoolers. To explore your interests in physics, you can opt for the Robotic Vehicles with AI Discovery Academy track. This course reinforces your understanding of core physics, math, and algorithm concepts. You learn how motors, sensors, microcontrollers, and embedded software work to drive a robotic vehicle. You program your own robotic car using AI. The course enables you to develop computational and design-thinking skills.
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Not specified
Location: Online
Cost: $1,795
Dates: Multi-length courses available throughout the year
Application Deadline: Varies according to session
Eligibility: Students aged 13 years and older
Engineering is a constantly evolving and dynamic field. In this course, you learn the fundamentals of engineering and its various disciplines. You learn foundational science topics, including physics, chemistry, mechanics, and calculus, that are necessary in engineering. The course teaches how these topics are applied in the real world to solve problems. Accordingly, you learn to identify problems and design and build solutions. Interactions with professional engineers from various fields allow you to consider diverse career pathways.
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Selective
Location: Online
Cost: $1,365 – $1,420
Dates: June 16 – July 21 (Summer A) or July 13 – August 17 (Summer B)
Application Deadline: May 11 (Summer A) or June 8 (Summer B)
Eligibility: Students in grades 7 – 11 with CTY-level quantitative scores
This virtual program by Johns Hopkins CTY teaches you various sports phenomena through the lens of physics. By delving into sports mechanics, you learn topics like kinematics, dynamics, momentum, energy, and power. You solve mathematical computations in these topics. You develop a model of Newtonian mechanics from a sport and apply concepts like conservation, work, energy, and power to understand efficiency in sports. You also engage with experimental data and simulations to understand the influence of physics principles on athletic performance. The course thus blends with physics theory with the real-world applications in sports.
Acceptance rate/cohort size: 10 – 14
Location: Science and Arts Academy, Des Plaines, IL
Cost: Ranges from $625 – $1,200
Dates: June 15 – 26 (session 1), June 29 – July 10 (session 2), or July 13 – 24 (session 3)
Application Deadline: June 1
Eligibility: Students in grades 1 – 8
This summer program for middle schoolers offers holistic learning and fun activities. You can opt for one of several two-week programs. Students interested in physics can participate in the Rollercoaster Engineering track. You learn topics like gravity, motion, and structural engineering to build your own rollercoaster. Practical activities involve engineering challenges and testing models. Thus, you learn to apply theory to practical engineering design.
Acceptance rate/cohort size: 25% – 40%
Location: University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL
Cost: $20
Dates: June 22 – 26
Application Deadline: End of March
Eligibility: Students in grades 7 – 9
Students interested in physics and engineering can opt for this summer camp. This camp teaches you to think like a materials scientist. You learn how materials are put together, how they can be used, and how they can be changed or improved. Through lab-based activities, you gain practical skills in making materials. You also manipulate the physical properties of various materials during the camp. You make a poster demonstrating your learnings, which you present at the culminating poster session.
Stephen is one of the founders of Lumiere and a Harvard College graduate. He founded Lumiere as a Ph.D. student at Harvard Business School. Lumiere is a selective research program where students work 1-1 with a research mentor to develop an independent research paper.