An annual program that fosters scientific thinking, scholarly collaboration, and interpersonal connections in our society while encouraging women and minority students to consider scientific careers.

Non-credit

Residential

Financial Aid

Final project

The Pennsylvania Governor’s School for the Sciences (PGSS) is a summer enrichment program in mathematics, computer science, physics, chemistry, and biology for rising high school seniors throughout the state of Pennsylvania. Between 1982 and 2008 and starting again in 2013, PGSS is hosted at Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh, PA for 5 weeks every summer, typically from end of June until the beginning of August. It features a cutting-edge curriculum and hands-on laboratory research that makes use of the sophisticated technology and facilities of Carnegie-Mellon. For many high schoolers, it is their first exposure to college-level academics and an inspiration to pursue further studies and careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields.

In this age of information explosion, scientific research is constantly developing new frontiers and the technology with which to conquer them. It is understandably difficult in terms of budget, scheduling, and heterogeneous talents among student bodies for local schools to deliver the front line in science and mathematical experiences to students with special abilities and talents in these fields. PGSS Campaign, Inc. is dedicated to maintaining the presence of this unique and valuable program to future generations of Pennsylvania high school students.

Core Courses
To keep apace with the rapid changes in professional scientific inquiry, PGSS courses change from year to year. The courses and research opportunities listed below provide a general picture of the experiences students can expect. Students are required to take all the core courses at first but may drop one core course after the second week, provided that they have been carrying at least one elective course. The following are examples of recent core courses:

• Biotechnology of HIV and AIDS: Examining how biotechnology is used in the development of the anti-HIV drugs, the molecular interactions between different drugs and their targets, and the causative agent of AIDS.
  
• Organic Chemistry: Treating the methods of preparation, reactions, and uses of some of the important functioning classes of organic compounds.
  
• Concepts of Modern Physics: Including special and general relativity, basics of particle physics, and the particle/physics cosmology interface.
  
• Discrete Mathematics: Looking at mathematics in a new way, using elementary combinatorics, graph theory, probability, and game theory.
  
• Computer Science: Using a mathematical approach to data organization, text compression, and cryptography.
  
• All students have also been required to participate in guest lectures by prominent scientists for the duration of the program. Tours of local facilities engaged in modern scientific technology are usually optional.

Laboratory Research and Team Projects
Students select one laboratory course from biology, chemistry, physics, or computer science.
Students then select one team project from the discrete sciences, interdisciplinary sciences, mathematics, or computer science (these may change from year to year). This is a collaborative research experience that culminates in a formal scientific report, which gets published in the annual PGSS journal and presented to the entire program community and guests.

Electives
PGSS typically offers from five to seven elective courses each year in addition to the required core courses, laboratory research and team project. Each student can take up to four elective courses, although they are encouraged to strike a balance between academic and social activities. Elective offerings vary from year to year, often including topics such as:

AI and Machine Learning
Axioms and Constructions, Ancient and Modern
Brain on the Fritz
COVID-19: The Biology of a Pandemic
Foundations of Music: Science and Mathematics
How and Why to Go Beyond the Discovery of the Higgs Boson
Laser Technology

Guest Lectures
PGSS often invites speakers from industry or academia to present during class or at special lecture events. These lectures typically focus on current scientific issues, and allow for questions and individual contact between the students and the presenter.
Lectures in past years have ranged from the engineering of JPL’s Europa mission to a discussion on the methods of natural gas extraction and the environmental impact of such methods.

PGSS 2024

Jun 23 - Jul 27

5 weeks

Residential

0 USD

The PGSS Program is free

Financial Aid

All selected students automatically receive a full scholarship to attend. Historically, nearly all selected students accept this honor.