Applications Open! Enroll for Summer 2027 at 2026 Tuition Pricing Until Sept 30
Explore how AI and emerging technologies could change human life in this two-week, full-day Dartmouth academy for high school students.
Course Description
Imagine building a life alongside AI, choosing whether to alter human genes, or helping shape a community on Mars. Explore the science behind those possibilities and the decisions that could change what it means to be human.
In this course you will explore human evolution, neuroscience, and emerging technologies through anthropology, the study of human cultures and societies. Trace how earlier inventions changed daily life, then examine artificial intelligence, genetic engineering, prosthetic limbs, and devices that connect brains with computers.
Observe how people interact with technology in familiar settings and digital communities. Those observations bring big ethical questions closer to home: how might a new tool change relationships, identity, or access to opportunity? Compare scientific possibilities with the cultural choices that influence whether people adopt them.
Your work builds toward an evidence-based vision of a possible future human community. Explain how it could function and defend your choices, connecting scientific understanding with the lives people might lead.
This two-week full-day academy for high school students is part of Dartmouth Precollege Summer Scholars in Hanover, New Hampshire. Developed and academically led by Dartmouth, it focuses on one academy throughout the program. Residential and commuter options are available.
What You Will Do
• Trace how past technologies changed human societies
• Compare questions about human brains and artificial intelligence
• Observe everyday and digital interactions with technology
• Examine AI relationships and the choices behind a Mars community
• Weigh ethical questions about gene editing and human enhancement
• Develop and defend a vision of a future human community
Learning Outcomes
By the end of the course, students will be able to:
• Explain how culture and technology shape each other over time
• Evaluate emerging technologies through scientific, cultural, and ethical perspectives
• Support a plausible vision of a future community with evidence
You’ll leave with your observations, evidence-based vision of a future community, and a certificate of completion.
Why Anthropology Skills Matter
Knowing what a technology can do does not settle how people should use it. Questions about access, identity, relationships, and power help reveal whose lives could improve and whose could become harder.
Combining scientific ideas with careful observation of people builds a way to examine those choices. It connects interests in science and technology with anthropology, ethics, and the decisions communities face.
Who Should Attend?
For students who have completed 9th, 10th, 11th, or 12th grade.
If science fiction sends you into a conversation about what people would actually do, this academy gives you more to work with. It brings science together with questions about culture, identity, and fairness. You’ll consider contested topics, including AI relationships, genetic editing, and changes to human bodies, from more than one perspective.
Recommended by 9 out of 10 Students
Based on students surveyed in the Dartmouth Precollege Summer Scholars program (2026)
Your Summer at Dartmouth
Dartmouth Precollege Summer Scholars gives high school students a concentrated introduction to college-level learning in Hanover, New Hampshire. The program is developed and academically led by Dartmouth. Students explore current ideas through discussion, projects, and sustained work that helps them test an academic interest in depth.
Residential students live in Dartmouth residence halls, eat at 53 Commons, and can join workshops and counselor-supported evening and weekend activities. Time in Hanover and the Upper Valley adds a distinctive New England setting, while the broader experience helps students build independence and clarify what they may want to study next.
After successfully finishing this course, you will be awarded a certification completion for your accomplishment.
*This is a preview, not what you will receive