Tucked away on an upper floor of Goddard Lab, a group of students is busily attempting to clone DNA from E. coli bacteria.
With their goggles on and their lab books open, these students are doing the work normally reserved for college juniors or seniors.
Except that they are high school students.
This summer, 362 high school juniors and seniors have descended upon Locust Walk to either take part in a special science program designed just for them, or to take regular Penn classes with undergraduates.
"My family... wanted me to go out and experience something, so what better than college?" said New York high school senior Daniel King, adding that his residential counselor is "like, the bomb."
While many of these students are away from home and on their own for the first time, together they are learning how to handle college-level academics, roommates and the necessary evil of time management.
"It's sort of disorienting because you have so much free time on your hands, and you really don't feel like working," Florida high school senior Patrick Toussaint said while taking a break from a game of foosball. "But not to say that we're not working -- we've done all our work."
Among the most popular classes in the Precollege program, in which students typically take up to two University classes for credit, are microeconomics and many of the writing courses, according to summer sessions director Valerie Ross.
Since taking over the program three years ago, Ross has attempted to make the program more formalized, so that students can get through their college summer with a soft landing.
"Students get an introduction to college life that's authentic, but that also provides a kind of safety net," she said, adding that "discovering you're not the only star" -- which is the case for many in their high schools -- ranks among the most eye-opening discoveries for students.
These experiences, however, are cushioned by workshops on such topics as college study strategies and SAT preparation, as well as social trips to places like Six Flags Great Adventure and Ocean City, New Jersey.
Another big part of the students' environment is the 15 residential counselors who mentor, advise and tutor their charges.
"I didn't really expect it to be this demanding, but it's like a 65-hour workweek," counselor Amish Naik, a College senior, said.
"Your pay isn't that good, and the benefits aren't that good, but you end up feeling like you actually did something," Naik said, mentioning his pride in recently talking to a troubled student, and managing to get that student to smile.
But perhaps the ultimate sacrifice to be with the students was made by assistant residential director Dean Pierides, who gave up his downtown apartment for the summer to live in Harnwell College House -- a job requirement.
"There's an empty apartment at 21st and Pine waiting for me," Pierides said wistfully.
Although the majority of high school students chose to gain college credit this summer, others -- including many that Pierides watches over -- have opted to expand their scientific skills at the Penn Summer Science Academy.
This non-credit program, in which students can concentrate in either molecular biology or physics and astronomy, is comprised of an engaging set of classes, labs and guest lectures for the high schoolers alone.
"It's nice because it's all high school students," Connecticut high school senior Karen Lin said. "For the Precollege people, they have to be with college students, and the professors might not be as lenient on them."
But according to biology laboratory instructor Ruth Sporer, besides a few additional explanations, no other concessions have been needed.
"They take this very seriously," Sporer said. "That's what surprised me, because it's summertime, and they're 16."
One of the most telling reason for the high schoolers to spend part of their summer at Penn could be seen at the end of a recent laboratory, when an agarose gel filled with DNA was being analyzed with an ultraviolet light.
"This is the kind of equipment that we don't get to use in school," Lin said. "We only see pictures of it in our textbooks."
Those in the physics and astronomy concentration are also exposed to previously unseen equipment, with trips scheduled to use the telescopes at Penn observatories. However, only the biology concentration will get to deal with fake blood and police tape -- components of the mock crime scene analysis that concludes the program.
"The idea is that for the first three weeks they're basically arming themselves with all the tools they'll need to answer the genetic questions about who might have done it," molecular biology coordinator John Zurawski said.
About one-third of the summer session students will eventually matriculate at Penn, according to Ross, with their present experiences on campus and in the city being a strong determining factor.
But all of them will leave Penn with a little something extra -- new friends, new knowledge and maybe new goals.
"It's worked out really well," Connecticut high school senior Alex Noether said. "I'll be sad when I have to leave."
