The deadline for science-driven teens to apply for the 2025 UC Davis Bio Boot Camps is Saturday, March 1.
The Bohart Museum of Entomology, joined by the UC Davis Museum of Wildlife and Fish Biology (MWFB), and the Campus Recreation Youth Programs, launched the first Bio Boot Camp in 2011 for middle school students, and then in 2013, added a camp for high school students.
The particulars:
Bio-Boot Camp-Coastal, for students entering grades 7, 8 and 9 in fall 2025, is set for June 16-18 and June 20-21. (June 19 or Juneteenth, is a federal holiday, so the camp will be closed that day.) Activities on the UC Davis campus for three days will include visits to the Bohart Museum and MWFB, and then the group will head to the UC Davis Bodega Bay Field Station for an overnight excursion. The total cost is $475.
Bio Boot Camp 2.0, for students entering grades 10, 11 and 12 in fall 2025, will take place July 20-265. The camp spans seven days and six nights. It will include overnight camping at UC Berkeley's Sagehen Creek Field Station, and then it's off to the UC Davis campus to tour the Bohart and MWFB before heading over to UC Davis Quail Ridge Field Station outside of Winters. The total cost is $1200.
The application process is camper-driven, in that applicants must write a mini-essay, said Bio Boot Camp coordinator Tabatha Yang, education and outreach coordinator for the Bohart Museum of Entomology. If the cost is a barrier, the Bohart Museum Society can offer partial needs-based scholarships.
The Bio Boot Camps draw applications from not only California, but across the United States and the world, and there are often wait-lists.
Both the Bohart and MWFB are located in the Academic Surge Building, 455 Crocker Lane.
Bohart Museum. The Bohart, founded in 1946, houses a global collection of eight million insect specimens, as well as a live petting zoo (Madagascar hissing cockroaches, stick insects, tarantulas, scorpions and others). Director of the Bohart is Professor Jason Bond, the Evert and Marion Schlinger Endowed Chair in Insect Systematics, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, and associate dean of the UC Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.
MWFB. MWFB, founded in July 1972 houses vertebrate specimens dating back to the late 1800s, but it primarily noted for its modern collection of vertebrates, with most dating from the 1970s to present. Director is Andrew Engilis, principal museum scientist and curator.
The annual UC Davis Bio Boot Camps not only connect youths with nature, but with each other. Two students--Cole Cramer and Connor Hsu, now 15, and both students at La Canada High School, La Cañada Flintridge, Calif.--met at Bio Boot Camp and not only became close friends, but partners in entomological projects. Both plan to pursue careers in entomology. (See Bug Squad blog)
For more information, contact Tabatha Yang at bmuseum@ucdavis.edu.