Abstract:

Since 1983, the Anne Arundel County Public Schools' Gifted/Talented/Advanced Program Office and the Naval Academy staff have developed a partnership in a program that is commonly called ``Mentorship at the U.S. Naval Academy.'' The program joins two special needs: the students need for advanced academic experiences and research projects along with the Naval Academy's (an undergraduate school) need for research assistants to help the professors. The mentorship program is an intentional nurturing process for high school students working in an academic, scientific, and authentic research project environment. These projects require skills that are beyond what the classroom teachers and the curriculum can offer to advanced students. The process involves an optimal match between student and mentor---involving applications, interviews, selection, project involvement, and growth. Students are expected to work 132 h over a full year, receiving 1/2 a Carnegie credit unit for every 66 h worked---that counts as additional credit only. The Physics Dept. ``mentees'' do research in acoustics. Over the years, seniors have performed experiments involving sound generation by turbulent jets, scattering of sound by turbulence or by bubbly flow, nonlinear acoustics, chaos, Fourier analysis, electronic or computer projects, music acoustics, and sonar projects like ray tracing.