Girls on Rock is a unique, FREE wilderness science education program for high school students ages 16-17. Each summer a team of 9 participants and 3 instructors spends 12 days exploring and learning about the alpine landscapes of the Rocky Mountains through art, rock climbing, and conducting scientific field studies with our team of professional female glaciologists, ecologists, mountain guides, and artists. 

As part of Inspiring Girls Expeditions, our purpose is to give participants a feeling for the processes that create the natural world and provide an environment that fosters the critical thinking necessary to all scientific inquiry. We encourage the participants to think like scientists by making observations and inferences about the world around them. They develop their own experiments to test ideas and answer questions. At the end of the expedition, they present their findings to an audience of their peers, instructors, and visiting scientists. 

The participants also challenge themselves and gain self-confidence in their physical, intellectual, and social abilities. An Inspiring Girls Expedition is the science version of a “language immersion” experience – where we connect science and all aspects of daily life with the goal of creating lifelong advocates for Earth science, specifically, and the scientific process as a whole, regardless of whether or not they decide to specialize in science in their future career.

Our selection of participants is not based on grades or other accomplishments. We focus on creating a collaborative team and emphasize providing a unique experience for those who many not have access to such opportunities.