Registration is Open; however, several projects are near or at capacity. Click here to register.
Team meeting times are illustrated (below) in our weekly calendar. Scroll down the page to find descriptions of our projects.
When registering, students select the project of their choice. To date (May 22), all projects remain open; however, Eel grass, Bacteria Monitoring and Oceanography are nearing or hit capacity.
We encourage students to enroll in our Gulf River Water Quality Monitoring project and to join our Dune Grass research team. Likewise, our GIS Certificate program is a program we encourage all students to join.
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INFORMATION Sessions
We held late afternoon information sessions on three Wednesdays in April. If you’d like a Wednesday afternoon tour and have questions about our program, contact Jack Buckley (jbuckley@ccscr.org). Please use the subject line “Information Session.”
To become familiar with our program, we suggest you scroll through this Story Map. We believe the map journey, images, and text will provide you with an informative overview of our projects and our learning pathways.
FAMILY SUPPORT
CSCR welcomes all families.
Our family support request is quite modest considering our target goal for students each summer: 50 hours of immersive Varsity Research experience. Furthermore, our Varsity Research students can participate year-round in all of our programming and take full advantage of the opportunities we create 12 months a year for our Varsity Research teams. Additionally, we partner with many of the area high schools to ensure that CSCR student research is credentialed by partner schools.
For these highly valuable educational experiences, we ask families to contribute financially in support of our year-round programming. However, we erect no barriers to participation. Reach out to Jack Buckley (jbuckley@ccscr.org) with questions or concerns about our request for family support.
RESEARCH Start & End DATES
The core 2026 summer research calendar runs 8 weeks from Monday, June 22 to Friday, August 14. Given the winter storms that extended the school year for many of our students, we’ll have rolling starts to our projects.
Whatever a student’s availability might be, please know our research projects actually run for 10-12 weeks. College interns help us get started in early June, and not everyone disappears in late August. Therefore, the invitation is open to all varsity research students to get involved as soon after Memorial Day as possible, and remain engaged, if possible, until Labor Day. Opportunities for students are abundant beyond our core 8 week program.
That said, we repeat our official kick off and wrap up dates: Monday, June 22 –Friday, August 14. Furthermore, we want everyone to know that our core calendar provides ample research opportunities for students to meet our summer research target of 50 hours, the threshold for course recognition or credit at area high schools in our regional Community of Practice.
PROJECT DESCRIPTIONS
Gulf River Water Quality Monitoring: Monitoring the health of the Gulf River ecosystem is a project of great interest to the towns of Scituate and Cohasset. In this project, students collect and analyze data on bacteria, nutrients, temperature, pH, chlorophyll-a (algal blooms) to understand how water quality changes from upstream to the harbor. You’ll explore how storms, runoff, and human activity shape the ecosystems around us. This project connects directly to local decision-making—your work will help inform how we protect our community’s waters.
PFAS in the Watershed (Emerging Contaminants Research; embedded in the Gulf River project). Take on one of today’s most urgent environmental challenges: tracking “forever chemicals” in our local waters. Students will investigate PFAS levels in both surface water and foam. You’ll document how these contaminants move through the watershed and what they could mean for human and ecosystem health. This is science with real impact—students also share findings with community leaders and contribute to ongoing solutions.
Bacteria Monitoring & Public Health: This team protects the public health at our local beaches and harbor. In collaboration with Cohasset’s Board of Health, students collect water samples, run lab tests, and determine when conditions are safe—or unsafe—for swimming. The team investigates how rainfall, temperature, and environmental conditions influence bacteria levels in real time. This project puts you at the intersection of science and community, where your data can directly inform public advisories.
Oceanography: Harbor Systems, Currents & Marine Debris: Get out on the water and study the harbor as a dynamic, living system. Students collect plankton samples, monitor water quality with professional instruments, and deploy data loggers to track changes across the harbor over time. You’ll design and build ocean current drifters to visualize how currents—and climate change—moves through the Gulf of Maine system, while also investigating marine debris and its pathways from land to coast, coast to ocean. This project blends fieldwork, engineering, and environmental science to answer a big question: what is the state of our harbor?
Eelgrass Ecology & Coastal Resilience: Get in the water and help restore one of the ocean’s most important habitats! Eelgrass is a vital species that supports marine life, improves water quality, and protects shorelines from storms, among other attributes. Through snorkeling surveys, mapping, and hands-on monitoring and restoration work, you’ll contribute to building a deeper understanding of our local eelgrass ecosystem. This project connects local action to global climate solutions, including carbon storage and habitat resilience.
Dune Grass Mapping & Coastal Protection: Explore how coastal landscapes are shaped—and protected—by dune grass on Bassing Beach. Students combine fieldwork with advanced tools like drones, GPS mapping, and even machine learning to track changes in vegetation over time. This year, we welcome Dr Kate Willis to the project. Dr Willis, a GIS professor from Boston College’s Data Visualization Lab, will be leading our team’s 2026 approach to answering critical questions about barrier beach ecosystems: erosion, habitat health, and coastal resilience. This is a chance to work at the cutting edge of environmental science while making a visible impact on your local coastline.
GIS & Mapping for Community Resilience (MassGIS Certificate Program): Learn to “Map to See” the people and places that matter—and build real, career-ready GIS skills along the way. In partnership with MassGIS, students will earn a Certificate in GIS while working on real projects for local clients, analyzing data on climate risks, infrastructure, water systems, and community vulnerability. You’ll use professional tools like ArcGIS Online to create maps, run spatial analyses, and tell data-driven stories that inform real decisions. This is more than a project—it’s a pathway into the growing geospatial workforce and a chance to use mapping to improve your community.
Mapping Cohasset: A 1776 Project focuses on giving students an opportunity to explore– and map– the entire town of Cohasset noting where sites connected with our nation’s history intersect with our nation’s 250th celebration during the summer of 2026. From tidal estuaries to interior brooks and streams, there’s a world of “connection” to discover, explore, and map. This project takes place in the late afternoon to accommodate students who are working during the day.
Farmers Market & Community Stewardship: Another late afternoon project, CSCR’s weekly presence at the Cohasset Farmers Market will be planned and hosted by students. You’ll build communication, leadership, and advocacy skills while connecting science to everyday community action. This is a flexible, high-impact way to be part of the CSCR mission—right where people gather each week.
Note, some minor adjustments to the days and times a particular project meets are possible when a strong student consensus emerges to tweak the schedule a bit. Tweaks include might shifting meeting times slightly, or moving meeting days from A,B,C to B,C,E.