10 Critical Thinking Summer Programs for Gifted Middle School Students
- Stephen Turban
- 7 hours ago
- 6 min read
Critical thinking is a skill that allows you to receive, analyze, and understand information objectively. Instead of accepting information at face value, you question and study it. This is a crucial skill in many academic and career pathways. Gifted students may consider participating in programs that help them develop this skill alongside enhancing their knowledge.
Critical thinking summer programs encourage you to investigate a topic or question from various perspectives, allowing you to understand it holistically. Here are some programs that can help you build this skill.
10 Critical Thinking Summer Programs for Gifted Middle School Students
Location: Virtual
Cost: Varies; financial aid available
Acceptance Rate/Cohort Size: Highly selective
Dates: 8 weeks; varies by cohort
Application Deadline: Varies by cohort
Eligibility: Students in grades 6–8
Gifted students can build their critical thinking skills by conducting research with Lumiere’s Junior Explorer Program. The program pairs you with PhD mentors from prestigious universities, such as Harvard, Oxford, MIT, and Princeton, who are experts in their fields. Conducting research allows you 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. You can also hone your scientific communication skills through feedback and writing coaching sessions. You can publish your research in academic journals by opting for the Junior Research and Publication Program.
Location: Yale University, New Haven, CT
Cost: $75; full scholarships available
Acceptance Rate/Cohort Size: 7–14 students per class
Dates: June 29 – July 30
Application Deadline: February 27
Eligibility: Middle school students enrolled in public or parochial schools in New Haven, CT
The Ulysses S. Foundation program lasts 6 weeks and allows you to engage with a challenging and rigorous curriculum. This program is for highly motivated students and allows them to learn a diverse range of subjects while building critical thinking skills. You attend humanities and investigations classes in the mornings. Humanities classes cover art, writing, poetry, and philosophy. Investigations classes cover biology, chemistry, finance, and architecture. In the afternoon, you take an elective class of your choice depending on your grade.
Location: Virtual
Cost: Varies; financial aid available
Acceptance Rate/Cohort Size: Not specified
Dates: 25 hours over 10 weeks on weekends (spring cohort) or 25 hours over 2 weeks on weekdays (summer cohort)
Application Deadline: Rolling deadlines
Eligibility: Students in grades 6 – 8
Middle schoolers interested in pursuing a career in technology may find Veritas AI’s AI Trailblazers program suitable. You develop a foundational understanding of AI and machine learning through diverse topics like Python, data analysis, regression, image classification, neural networks, and AI ethics. These theoretical topics are taught through interactive classes. You then apply your learnings to a practical project. The project must solve a real-world challenge in a subject of your choice, which helps you hone problem solving and critical thinking skills. 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.
Location: Multiple U.S. campuses and online options
Cost: Varies by location and session
Acceptance Rate/Cohort Size: Selective
Dates: Various sessions in the summer
Application Deadline: Rolling until seats are filled
Eligibility: Rising 6th–8th grade students with strong academic performance
A+ Summer offers several weeklong sessions for middle and high schoolers. You delve into a rigorous and fast-paced curriculum that helps you build critical thinking, inquiry, creative problem-solving, and more skills. The theme for this year is Mystery Summer. You learn to identify fallacies of reasoning, distinguish between evidence and inference, and detect subtle clues and hints. You read detective fiction books, learn the basics of forensics, and develop deductive logic. The program also involves hands-on activities for holistic development.
Location: Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY
Cost: $700
Acceptance Rate/Cohort Size: 24 per grade level
Dates: June 29 – July 9
Application Deadline: On a first-come, first-served basis
Eligibility: Students in grades 7–8
The Science Exploration Program allows you to conduct research and explore diverse science subjects. The program supports your school education and equips you with research and critical thinking skills. You build these skills through reading, computer searching, writing, and group work. 7th graders can learn a range of topics in physics, chemistry, microbiology, and ecology through hands-on activities. 8th graders study biology, chemistry, biotechnology, and environmental chemistry through case studies and interactive demonstrations.
Location: Gilman School, Baltimore, MD
Cost: $1,045 commuter (includes lunches) or $2,100 residential
Acceptance Rate/Cohort Size: 16–18
Dates: June 22 – 26 or July 6 – 10
Application Deadline: May 8
Eligibility: Students in grades 7 or 8 who meet the ACT, SAT, or CogAT score requirements
Talented middle schoolers who wish to engage with a challenging curriculum can participate in this program. You can expect to build critical thinking and problem-solving skills that are essential for success in college-level STEM fields. The program offers one course track wherein you participate in three classes. Depending on the class, you participate in scientific modeling, collaborative lab work, data analysis, and discussion-based reflection. The program emphasizes mathematics, science, and technology and their real-world applications.
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Not specifiedLocation: University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WICost: $1,500 per session; financial aid is availableDates: June 14 – 19 (session 1) or June 21 – 26 (session 2)Application Deadline: May 1Eligibility: Students finishing grades 6 – 8
Gifted middle schoolers can opt for STEP, a rigorous academic program. The program emphasizes higher-level critical thinking and skill development for participants. You participate in one track depending on your interests for the duration of one week, thereby delving deep into the subject. You explore challenging concepts and questions and partake in practical activities. Group activities enable you to network with peers and cultivate new interests. The schedule includes lectures, learning activities, and independent work on your final project.
Location: University of Wisconsin–Madison, Madison, WI
Cost: $1,500 per session; financial aid available
Acceptance Rate/Cohort Size: Not specified
Dates: June 14 – 19 (Session 1) or June 21 – 26 (Session 2)
Application Deadline: May 1
Eligibility: Students finishing grades 6 – 8
Rice Bio Academics is a STEM program that involves hands-on activities in science and engineering. Middle schoolers can opt for the BioEng track where you learn engineering design, anatomy, and prosthetic development. Through lectures and activities, the program helps you understand genetics, anatomy, and engineering principles; develop critical thinking skills; and build confidence in STEM. The program involves lab sessions, talks by guest speakers, and team challenges. The other activities in the program include engineering design challenges, anatomy exploration, prosthetic prototyping, DNA extraction and analysis, micropipetting, bacterial transformation, and PTC gene testing.
9. Penn GEMS
Acceptance Rate/Cohort Size: Selective
Location: University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA
Cost: To be announced; limited financial aid available
Dates: June 22 – 26
Application Deadline: Varies by session
Eligibility: Rising 7th – 9th graders who live and attend school within 60 miles of Penn’s campus
This practical program invites you to develop your skills through experiential learning. You can gain exposure to diverse engineering, math, and science subjects like bioengineering, robotics, AI, materials science, and more. You can take this opportunity to build teamwork, communication, and critical thinking in STEM settings. The program introduces you to how engineers solve challenging problems. Support is provided by a mentor who acts as a role model.
Acceptance Rate/Cohort Size: Small classes
Location: Online or in person at Northwestern University, Evanston, IL
Cost: $990 – $6,025, depending on duration
Dates: Varies by course
Application Deadline: One week before the start date
Eligibility: Students in grades 6 – 12; additional academic criteria vary by course
Northwestern’s CTD offers a range of courses in various subjects for talented middle schoolers. Based on your interests, you can opt for the course you want to participate in. Beyond a rigorous curriculum, each course emphasises critical thinking and creative problem solving. They offer a combination of theory and hands-on practice to facilitate hands-on learning. You also receive the opportunity to learn from and network with experienced faculty and industry professionals who provide insights into various career pathways.
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.
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