PARI’s Summer Camp programming is designed to inspire today's young scientist. We offer experiences that encourage deeper thinking and problem solving skills while bring out enthusiasm, confidence and the eagerness to learn. For over 20 years, PARI has helped campers explore STEM, Space Science and Space exploration all while having fun in the incredible Pisgah Forest. Come your summer with us at PARI and explore the universe with us.
PARI has a camp for every student scientist:
Mission Control: Exoplanet Exploration
Our Mission Control camps provide simulated missions that cover the many topics and skills necessary for a successful exploration of world beyond our own. We’ll use the same kinds of processes that NASA, SpaceX and others use in developing and conducting journeys into space. These missions teach teamwork and STEM principles while giving campers fun and exciting experiences. The camp is an immersive journey amidst our historic campus which played a critical role in the first space race, and will help poise your camper for a role in the next. Teams will research real technologies and techniques to build and launch a spacecraft, set science and research goals, and ensure everything needed is sent along. They will also need to choose a crew and care for their health and well-being, perform outreach and gain public support, and navigate funding and political challenges.
Above & Beyond Research Based Camps
PARI’s research based camps are aimed at the camper who wants to experience what its like to be a researcher in astronomy, astrophysics, and astrobiology. Scientists and researchers with careers in space science lead this academically challenging curriculum that has been refined for nearly two decades. Camps begin with an intense first few days of introductions to the instruments, science, and math needed to conduct research. They’ll be guided through choosing a research goal from the menu investigations we believe they can successfully conduct with radio and optical telescopes, and vast archives, provided by PARI and its partners. The importance of both individual and team based work is emphasized while campers are guided through the research process. They’ll learn to share their progress and conclusions in the same ways expected in journals and at astronomical conferences.
Clemson & PARI Summer Camps
Milky Way Trailblazers-
Map the Milky Way and plot a path for future explorers!Discover how to chart the distribution of hydrogen gas and its movement in our home galaxy as a galactic cartographer. You’ll use giant NASA built radio telescopes to uncover data that can’t be captured any other way. This camp is part of a partnership with Clemson University and includes a field trip to their astronomy research labs.
Secrets of a Spy Station
Prepare for Space Exploration –
What better setting than PARI, which once operated as a spy station for the Department of Defense during the Cold War, where messages were being intercepted and deciphered? Another element in the sending of secrets is how you transport them from place to place. We’ll take a look at the technologies, both past and present, that allow information to zip out to distant satellites and back down to Earth. How do we make sure our sensitive transmissions don’t end up in the wrong hands?From messages based on playing with words and numbers, to hiding information in plain sight in images and everyday objects, you’d never suspect all the ways cryptography is used all around us. Campers will leave with an understanding of the principles that drive the world and keep our data safe.
