Trending Topics and Curricular Staples Among Samplings at Summer at Hopkins 2024

Published December 17, 2024

Academically minded and intellectually curious pre-college and undergraduate students from around the world met at Johns Hopkins to learn online and in-person, delving into a vast array of topics during their enriching stint in 2024.

“The varied, innovative, and expansive courses in our catalog continue to attract enthusiastic summer learners who are eager to engage with all that Summer at Hopkins has to offer,” said Owen Hooper, executive director of summer and intersession programs.

New offerings centered on artificial intelligence, experimental design in biology, and public health and augmented perennially popular medical and health courses, including neuroscience, introduction to surgery, and laboratory research.

“Summer at Hopkins’ catalog has a diverse range of engaging courses and programs across multiple disciplines, attracting students who are excited to explore and grow,” Hooper said. “It’s inspiring to see around 1,800 students take part in these tailored opportunities, learning from passionate faculty and connecting with peers who share their interests. We aim to strike a balance between rigor and relaxation, study and socialization, that students really seem to enjoy.”

2024 Pre-College Program Highlights

Three new Pre-College Programs attracted the attention of summer learners in 2024, immersing students in Foundational Mathematics of Artificial Intelligence; Experimental Design in Biology; and Social Inequality and the Public’s Health. Of course, students continued to enroll in large numbers in medical-related courses, including epidemiology, neuroscience, and psychopathology, as well as in STEM-related courses, and in offerings in the social sciences and humanities.

New in 2024:

Foundational Mathematics of Artificial Intelligence

This course combines lectures, discussions, and hands-on activities about sources and types of data for artificial intelligence. Students gain insight on data visualization and analysis; machine learning techniques such as classification, regression, and clustering; neural networks, computer vision, and language processing; and ethical considerations for the use of artificial intelligence, including bias, privacy, and misinformation. “The students really enjoy working on a Python notebook in small groups to apply the learning from their morning lectures,” Hooper said, “and on a final group project that delivers an effective AI model.”

Introduction to Experimental Design

The course ushers in hands-on laboratory learning for student-conceived and designed experiments. Students track experiment results in lab notebooks and summarize their findings in a course-completing poster. The students learn and apply specific laboratory techniques including streaking bacterial plates for bacterial growth, selection, and isolation; inducting targeted protein expression; preparing and storing samples properly; and performing gel electrophoresis, Western blotting, and kinetic optical absorbance measurements.

Social Inequality and the Public’s Health

Course lectures and hands-on activities immerse students in discussions about key health disparities impacting marginalized communities; the social, psychological, and biological processes that create health disparities; and the use of data on health disparities to identify public health programs and policy goals. Students explore a variety of public health case studies, examine core concepts in epidemiology, and conclude the course with a 10-minute presentation that summarizes key facts about a major public health issue, marginalized groups that face the greatest risk, and factors that may contribute to these disparities.

Student Satisfaction Says It Best

Pre-College Programs continue to thrive not only because of the exceptional academic level that they offer, but also because they serve as the first introduction to the college experience. Students are free to enjoy the beautiful JHU campus, dorm life, and all the activities that come with being on the Homewood campus and in the Baltimore/Washington, D.C. metro area, including movies, recreational activities and scavenger hunts, and outings to museums and historic sites.

“This is what college life is for, putting things that we enjoy into our life,” said Chris, 17, a student from China. “I have treasured my time here. The experience has been mind-blowing because it has given me exposure to new experiences, new people, and new cultures.”

“When I think about this program, I think about the welcoming teachers, diverse classmates, and fun activities,” said Khadija, 16, who enrolled in the Introduction to Surgery program.

Many students, in fact, noted their programs help them to become more connected to both themselves, and their own educational dreams and aspirations, as well as to others.

“The students here are really amazing and smart,” said Angelica, 17, who enrolled from Pennsylvania. “I found the experience to be pleasantly challenging, and it gave me a better idea of what the college experience will be like.”

Summer Term Undergraduate Courses

A plethora of possibilities awaited undergraduate students and qualified pre-college students who selected from more than 85 on-campus and online Summer Term credit-earning courses across a broad range of disciplines. From math, science, and engineering to the humanities, arts, and social sciences, Summer Term at Johns Hopkins provided a unique opportunity to gain experience and advance through five weeks of on-campus courses and five, six, eight or 10 weeks of online options.

New 2024 Summer Term undergraduate courses included:

Mathematics for Sustainability

Mathematics for Sustainability covers topics in measurement, probability, statistics, dynamics, and data analysis. In this course, students analyze, visually represent, and interpret large, real data sets from a variety of government, corporate, and non-profit sources. Through local and global case studies, students engage in the mathematics behind environmental sustainability issues and the debates centered on them.

Positive Psychology

The course reviews the growing field of positive psychology and research on positive human attributes such as optimism, happiness, hope, resiliency, self-esteem, altruism, empathy, and forgiveness. Students come to understand the development of these positive attributes and how they relate to psychological and physical well-being.

We are Ramping Up for Summer 2025

Don’t miss out on the chance to forge an unforgettable summer! Enrolling in Summer at Hopkins Pre-College Programs or Summer Term Undergraduate Courses can expand your mind, your social circle, and your future possibilities. Space is limited. Apply now to Summer at Hopkins or complete an inquiry form and learn why there’s nothing like summer at Johns Hopkins.