SoundWaters Research Intensive

Exploring our Million Acre Classroom

SoundWaters Research Intensive (SRI) is an exciting opportunity for high school students to learn and build real science research experiences and skills.  SRI builds critical college and career skills in students through real-life field study and progressively more advanced work in the laboratory, on the water and along the shore.

Where: SRI is based at the Cohen SoundWaters Harbor Center on Stamford Harbor.

Who: SRI students are a diverse, motivated and intellectually curious group seeking opportunities to grow. We know from experience there are high school students who have a passion for science and ecology but lack opportunities and/or resources to engage in an advanced science research experience. 

When: Separate SRI programs are offered after school during the fall and spring semesters and all day during the summer in four distinct two-week sessions.

Program Activities

Using sophisticated equipment on our research vessel and in the lab, students will design and conduct original marine science research in:

• Water quality
• Animal populations and diversity
• Human impact

All students will gain insights into factors contributing to climate change as well as the impact on their local environment. They will have access to their own professional-grade research materials, equipment and space in the Harbor Center lab. They will learn to evaluate and map sites, identify water quality parameters to provide meaningful data and to set up animal population studies to test their hypotheses about varying growth rates and conditions.

Scholarship funding for SRI is made possible through generous funding from the Munzer Foundation, 11th Hour Racing and Tim & Sheila Pettee.