71 activities found·Browse by category
Advanced Space Academy (U.S. Space & Rocket Center)
A six-day immersive residential astronaut-training and engineering program for ages 15-18 at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center, including rocket design and launch, an underwater astronaut trainer, engineering challenges, and a simulated space mission.
AFRL Scholars Program
A paid eight-week summer research internship that places upper-level high schoolers directly with Air Force Research Laboratory scientists and engineers at sites across the U.S. to work on real research and technology projects.
American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT) High School Physics Photo Contest
Annual contest where students submit photos illustrating physics principles with written explanations.
American Rocketry Challenge (formerly TARC)
The world's largest student rocketry contest, where teams design, build, and launch a rocket to hit precise altitude and duration targets carrying an egg payload, competing for over $100,000 in prizes.
APS (American Physical Society) High School Teacher-Student Workshops
Regional workshops where students work with physicists on current research topics and experiments.
Botball
An autonomous robotics competition where middle and high school teams design, build, and program fully autonomous robots — no remote controls allowed — using standardized kits and real programming languages.
BPhO (British Physics Olympiad) Round 1
UK-based but open globally; challenging problem set with calculus-level physics; can lead to IPhO selection for UK students.
Brookhaven National Laboratory High School Research Program (HSRP)
A competitive six-week commuter research program at Brookhaven National Lab where students who have completed 11th grade work directly with scientific and engineering staff on real DOE-mission research projects.
Caltech IQIM K-12 Programs
Caltech's Institute for Quantum Information and Matter runs on-campus quantum science outreach for K-12 students, including hands-on demonstrations, quantum gaming, and classroom visits from physics researchers.
Caltech YESS (Young Engineering and Science Scholars)
Intensive 6-week summer program for underrepresented students in STEM; includes physics research and mentorship.
Camp SOAR (Texas A&M Aerospace Engineering)
A six-day residential Texas A&M summer camp for rising juniors and seniors exploring aircraft, rotorcraft, space mission design, and space robotics tracks through technical lectures, hands-on design projects, and facility tours, with need-based scholarships available.
CERN High School Student Programme
3-week summer internship at CERN (Geneva) for students 16+; work with particle physicists on cutting-edge experiments.
Chabot Space & Science Center – Galaxy Explorers
A Northern California teen volunteer program at Chabot Space & Science Center in Oakland where high schoolers lead public astronomy and physics demonstrations, operate telescopes, and build job and public-speaking skills.
Columbia Science Honors Program
Saturday enrichment program at Columbia University for NYC-area students; includes advanced physics courses.
Conrad Challenge
A global STEM innovation and entrepreneurship competition where student teams design original solutions in categories like Aerospace & Aviation or Energy & Environment, culminating in an Innovation Summit at Space Center Houston.
Coursera / edX Physics MOOCs (e.g., MIT 8.01x)
Online university-level physics courses from top institutions; free to audit, fee for certificate.
Denver Museum of Nature & Science – Teen Science Scholars
Selective paid internship that places 20 high schoolers from underserved or underrepresented backgrounds into the Museum's Science Division each year, doing real scientific work alongside Museum scientists and exploring museum and STEM careers. Includes a stipend of about $1,800 per session plus professional development in public speaking and college planning.
F=ma Exam (AAPT)
First round of Physics Olympiad qualification; focuses on mechanics and problem-solving, open to any HS student.
Fermilab Friends Summer Internship
Summer research internship at Fermilab for students interested in particle physics and accelerator science.
FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC)
Flagship varsity high school robotics competition where teams build 120 lb robots to play a new game each year. Most prestigious robotics competition with pathways to substantial scholarships.
FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC)
A robotics competition for middle and high schoolers who build smaller-scale robots to compete in a new game released each September, emphasizing engineering design and teamwork.
Garcia Center for Polymers at Engineered Interfaces - Summer Research
7-week paid research at Stony Brook University; polymer physics and materials science projects for HS students.
Girls Who Code Summer Immersion Program (Physics/Comp Focus)
2-week free program introducing coding and computational physics concepts to young women.
GoPhysics! Online Workshops
Free online physics workshops from Perimeter Institute where high schoolers dive into modern topics like gravity and black holes, or exoplanets and cosmology, guided by working physicists.
Inspiring Future Women in Science
An annual half-day conference at Perimeter Institute connecting high schoolers with women scientists to discuss careers, challenges, and opportunities in physics and science; recordings available online.
International Physics Olympiad (IPhO)
Invitation-only global competition for top national teams; experimental and theoretical exams.
Jefferson Lab High School Summer Honors Program
A paid six-week research internship at Jefferson Lab where local high schoolers conduct mentored physics and engineering research alongside lab scientists.
Johns Hopkins CTY Online Physics
Rigorous online physics courses (AP Physics, intro to quantum) for gifted students.
Khan Academy Physics
Free online physics courses (AP Physics 1, 2, C) with videos, practice, and mastery tracking.
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory - High School Internship
Summer research internship at Berkeley Lab; projects in physics, materials science, and computation.
LLNL SAGE (Science Accelerating Growth & Engagement)
A free, one-week day camp at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory where Northern California high schoolers do hands-on STEM projects and meet LLNL scientists and engineers.
MIT Beaver Works Summer Institute – Quantum Software
A rigorous MIT program combining an online prerequisite course with a four-week in-person summer session where students implement real quantum algorithms in Qiskit.
MIT BWSI (Beaver Works Summer Institute) - Autonomous Systems
4-week residential program at MIT; combines physics (sensors, dynamics) with coding for autonomous systems.
MIT MITES Summer
Free, six-week residential STEM program at MIT for rising high school seniors (11th graders) from underrepresented or underserved backgrounds. Students take rigorous math, science, and humanities courses, complete a project, and live in MIT dorms. Highly selective; all costs covered.
MIT Research Science Institute (RSI)
Extremely selective 6-week residential research program; many students do physics/astrophysics projects with mentors.
NASA Human Exploration Rover Challenge (HERC)
A nine-month NASA engineering challenge in which student teams design and build human-powered or remote-controlled rovers to navigate a simulated lunar/Martian obstacle course at a culminating event at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center.
ECFinder provides links to outside extracurricular opportunities for informational purposes only. Students and families should research each program before applying. ECFinder does not operate or control the listed organizations and is not responsible for their actions or policies.