Research Experience for High School Students - Dissertation Example

? Research Experience for High School Number The art of systematically undertaking formal work to heighten the stock of knowledge has been important not only to university students, but is also increasingly becoming popular to high school education. This has especially been the case since the turn of the 21st century, as this new era opened a door for greater Internet use and preponderance of knowledge and information. Likewise, the 21st century has seen a lot of policy changes being made in the US learning curriculum. These changes have directly and indirectly encouraged the introduction and entrenchment of research experience in high school. Most importantly, the push to subject high school students to research experience has been propelled by the need to introduce these students to research methods and investigation prior to their encountering of tertiary level of learning. Given the absence of specific and clear-cut formal policies and frameworks from the government on research experience for high school students, the quest to inject high school learning with research experience has largely remained in the hands of private initiatives. This means that the introduction and maintenance of research experience in high school learning has mostly been a preserve of efforts applied by individual high schools and their stakeholders. Conversely, there are other organizations or agencies such as the National Science Foundation which sustain Research Experience for High School Students (REHSS) programs with logistics and finances and help further the goals of REHSS. Some high school programs such as the Research Experience for High School Students have thrived and provide an intense 6-week internship for scientific research. Previously known as the Research Internship Program, this arrangement allows students to access research laboratories in order to engage in independent research projects, under the tutelage of a research faculty member. Normally, the research faculty member aiding and guiding the student has to come from the institution sustaining the research. For instance, Vanderbilt University enjoys the widest notoriety for sustaining these independent research projects. This means that most of the research faculty members who mentor high school students undertaking independent research projects are employees of Vanderbilt University. All students who participate in REHSS are to attend weekly breakout sessions in groups and are to be led by a group of Vanderbilt University postdoctoral and graduate student researches. According to Aydeniz, Baksa and Skinner (2011), the importance of the REHSS is that the breakout sessions strengthen the student’s laboratory experience by nurturing and strengthening the skills that are needed for scientific comprehension and communication. The same breakout sessions expose high school students to scientific careers and careers in social sciences, the research community, leading scholars and university studies. This notion above is underscored by Jacobs (2009) who contends that REHSS impacts positively on apprenticeship and apprentice programs, and thereby adding value to high school students understanding of the scope and nature of scientific inquiry. To strengthen this standpoint, Jacobs (2009) cites a study which was carried out on seventeen students’ understanding of the scope and nature of science and scientific inquiry. Data gathered on this were collected through questionnaires. The findings showed that though engagement in authentic scientific research assisted participants develop competence in experimentation methods; the same had limited impact on the participants’ learning of implicit aspects of NOS and scientific inquiry. In respect to the foregoing, it is important to note that institutions of learning which provide REHSS services have the prerogatives to set the requirements for enrolment. Roberts and Wassersug (2009) contends that in most cases, the student candidates must be: sixteen years of age by the time they will have successfully enrolled; current 11th graders; and fully committed to the 6 weeks program. At the same time, these students must be ready to make personal arrangements for their residence since REHSS is not a residential program. Only out of town students are guaranteed housing and must provide proof in order to access suitable and supervised housing arrangements. The same students are also expected to provide for their own transport and be ready to cater for their own finances, given that stipends and other forms of financial assistance are available but are never guaranteed. Again, to access REHSS students are subjected to competitive application processes which is inclusive of interviews. In respect to this, it is obvious that the REHSS can be said to have played a positive role in improving the standard of high school education in the United States. This value has been realized in a two-pronged way. In the first case, because of the competitive nature of REHSS system of intake, it is obvious that prospective and potential candidates work hard at the high school level of their studies, so as to merit the competitive process. Likewise, one readily agrees with the postulation advanced by Knesting (2008) that students are provided with an internal stimulus to work dexterously in their studies, so that they can qualify for REHSS programs and the courses they are to embark on, in future. Secondly, REHS through one of its three main objectives improves the standard of high school education by promoting the students’ exposure to environmental and other physical sciences. REHSS’ chief objective in this case is the provision of opportunities for highly motivated high school students, so that they can gain first hand experience in physical and Environmental Sciences and to conduct field research undertakings, under the direct tutelage and supervision of a trained scientist. The import of this is that these high school students acquire a wider and more practical spectrum on the field they are participating in, compared to their non-participating counterparts. It is most obvious that these students will perform highly in terminal high school exams. The foregoing is exemplified in the attempts that the University of Virginia, Department of Environmental Sciences is making, through the support and engagement of its Virginia Coast Reserve Long Term Ecological Research Programs, also known as VCR-LTER. Particularly, the relevance of VCR-LTER in entrenching this value is seen in its commitment to providing Northampton High School students carrying out research activities with highly capable and enthusiastic field assistance. It is also given that REHSS will have become exposed high school students to the scientific discipline they will want to participate in, at the tertiary level of education. This development thus inculcates a sense of decisiveness and mental preparation among high school students, in terms of the professions or careers they are going to take in the university or college. The same REHSS also provides students with an avenue for reevaluating the course they are going to participate in, in the post-high school era. Those that find the REHSS program and its research investigations too complex and strenuous can therefore switch to other disciplines that auger well with them. The case immediately above is seen to be true not only among high school students, but also their graduate counterparts. Particularly, every REHSS program has institution-specific modules that are meant at helping perpetuate both the interests of the students and the REHSS-supporting institution. The University of Virginia (UVA) for instance has its REP program which is geared towards helping high school students and graduates identify REHSS research projects, and to determine the specific interests of the graduate interests. UVA through its RFP module does this by soliciting from graduate students, research ideas that high school students can pursue as part of a mentored team. The same research ideas are also to be used to address the concerns of the entire LTER Program. It is also important to take stock of the fact that the main rationale behind the founding of UVA’s REHSS was the anticipation that high school student research would be pivotal in impacting and benefiting research activities carried out by graduate students. Another rationale behind this initiative was the need to identify a class of highly motivated high school students hailing from Northampton High School. The practice above is not any different from the operations and efforts that Princeton Center for Complex Materials Education Outreach (PCCM) makes, in the bid to participate in, and uphold the cause of the American Chemical Society’s Project (SEED) program. In this program, high school students are accorded the opportunity to participate in research, under the tutelage and enablement of the PCCM faculty member. In this effect, ACS and PCCM have supported two students annually in this program. Because of this, PCCM still provides support for all Project SEED students in all PRISM and PCCM faculty laboratories. Thus, by the time the student is sitting for the final high school exams or enrolling for university education, the entrants or participants will have gained experience in research and the discipline itself. Burgin, Sadler and Koroly (2011, 443) argue that REHSS gives students with avenues and chances for epistemic involvements in the research process, and thereby acting as useful; forms of apprenticeship. Burgin, Sadler and Koroly (2011, 443) are categorical that studies reveal that ideal apprenticeship is one through which, and in which students assume active roles in formulating research questions, designing procedures and also being actively involved in interpreting results. In a closely related wavelength, Burgin, Sadler and Koroly (2011, 440) wax poignant that efforts to engage learners in REHSS have been very successful. They continue that laboratory experiences have been a very successful model of scientific inquiry in Israel, among high school students. In Australia, efforts to integrate chemistry instructions to meaningful contexts are not underway, but have also created opportunities for learners to participate in experimental and independent investigations. In Germany, educators have used structured pre-experimental activities to help students formulate research questions and research designs. In Britain, scientific investigations have been used repeatedly and made part of national curriculum. It is also true that REHSS complements the educational system by giving it a more practical angle. This is because; the high school curriculum in the US is largely theoretical. By introducing high school students to research experiences, students, especially those taking pure and applied sciences, become more acquainted with concepts being taught to them. For instance, students who are being taught the mole concept are bound to benefit more if they are accorded accessibility to laboratories, from whence they can learn to carry out titration, tabulate the results found and explain the essence and significance of the research findings arrived at. Even renowned experts such as Hammond, Karlin and Thimonier (2010) point out that the immediately foregoing is of pivotal importance because it predisposes learners to develop a proclivity towards applying the concepts that have been learnt to real life issues. This is because research experiences help the learner appreciate the practical aspect of concepts that have already been taught. A high school biology student who has only crammed the functions of liver may forget easily what he has read, compared to his counterpart who has gone to the laboratory and observed the physiological behaviors of a rat that has had its liver removed. The roles of the liver will become clearer when the liver is restored into the rat’s system. Similarly, a student who has tested the elements found in the ileum with chemical elements such as Di-chloro-phenol indo-phenol (DCPIP) and Sudan III and IV will practically appreciate the role of the ileum in the digestive process. In another wavelength, Ellis, Goodyear, Bliuc and Ellis (2011) wax poignant that one can critically observe that REHSS has gone a long way in engaging high school students constructively, keeping them positively occupied and thereby dissuading them from the ravages that accost the idleness of the youthful, or the adolescent. Specifically, REHSS programs normally kick in during summer to facilitate more comprehensive exchanges between the intern who is to work on a research project and the faculty mentor. It is still during this summer that both of the program participants are to meet on regular basis with the main intention of discussing the current status of the research project with the UVA staff and the ABCRC scientific staff. According to Kirby and Gardner (2010), the REHSS program has also continued to play a pivotal role in nurturing interpersonal and leadership skills and the art of public speaking. Particularly, the REHSS summer interns are expected to make public presentations of their research findings, at the end of their projects. REHSS high school summer students and interns are to be paid a stipend for the 8-week program they have participated in. Given that the stipend amounts to 2,500 US dollars, this translates to financial empowerment. Alongside this, the interns are accorded 750 US dollars to cater for the needed supplies. Again, every intern is provided with 2,500 US dollars to cater for the travel costs that are incurred when commuting to respective science conferences. The veracity of this observation is underscored by statistical findings that established that 75% of these successful interns used this money to buy books that apply to the same discipline they have made presentations in, while 20% used the money to start small-scale business in the transitional stage between the completion of high school education and the commencement of college or university education. Educational experts such as Groves and Welsh (2010) are categorical that REHSS helps inculcate a sense of accountability among high school students partaking in it. These experts point at the interaction that takes place between these students and the Review Committee which takes charge over the entire REHSS process. Operating under the direction and tutelage of the Review Committee is inevitable for the high school students and their graduate counterparts, given that it is the Review Committee which: evaluates all applications made; selects all the projects that are to be presented by high school students. In light of the above, graduate students are to attend all the meetings required for the projects, introduce themselves and the research projects that they are working on. Above all, the high school applicants are to be prescreened, besides being strictly asked to prioritize their interests, in relation to the research project that they are working on. The Review Committee will also have to match the REHS teams as a team, so that the mutual interests and the strength of the high school students’ involvement and applications can be harnessed. All these measures ensure that students are responsible and self-accountable (Shell, Snow and Claes, 2011). Taylor and Marri (2012) contend that REHSS has also remained indispensible in establishing racial egalitarianism in the high school-university transition. This is exemplified by the affairs that take place in the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. Doris Duke Charitable Foundation (DDCF) runs the DDCF Clinical Research Experiences for High School Students (CREHSS) which is aimed at providing enrichment activities and clinical research services for high school students who hail from underrepresented minorities in healthcare disciplines such as medicine and nursing. Kovalik, Yutzey and Piazza (2012) divulge that the studies that were conducted under the aegis of DDCF’s CREHSS revealed that despite the fact that Hispanics and other cultural and racial minorities feature among the fastest growing segments of the US population, they remain the most underrepresented segments in the medical field. The results indicate that enrollment of members of these minority groups in medical faculties and schools are not in tandem with their growing numbers in the US demography. Particularly, the data that DDCF’s research findings tabled had it that since 2010, about 13% of the US population accounts for the African American; and 15.8% the Hispanic. The report divulged that among the student attending medical schools; only 7.2% accounted for the African American, while a meager 8.2%, the Hispanic. As a matter of fact, the same report recounted that only 2% of faculty members of the tenure-track medical school are representative of the minority. The gravity of the development above is underscored by the fact that despite the many existing science programs that are according an array of mentored research experiences for high school students, exposure to research in clinical sciences for the same students for the underrepresented groups continues to remain at large. It is against this backdrop that in its goodness, the DDCF decided to create CREHSS to help close this yawning gap among racial and social distributions in medical schools, and to instill inspiration among the racial and cultural minorities to begin to seriously consider and develop positive attitude towards careers in medicine and clinical research. Some of the groups which have been included in the list of the underrepresented ethnic and racial groups include the African Americans, the Alaska Natives, the Hispanics, Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders. Others falling within this rubric include the disabled and those from economically, socially, educationally or culturally deprived or disadvantaged backgrounds. The import of the foregoing is that it is only by establishing the state of the high school-university transition that corrective mechanisms can be applied to make egalitarianism among races, social classes or subcultures realizable in university education. The crux of the matter herein is that equal representation in high school-university transition among the different races, classes and subcultures in translates directly and indirectly into diversity and plurality of ideas in the workforce. Plurality of ideas and input in turn means that the industry in point benefits from fresh, vibrant and more efficient ideas (Stepath, 2005). As if the exploits that DDCF’s CREHSS do not suffice for the ensamplement of commitment to socioeconomic equity in medical schools and faculties, the same institution continues to extend grants and awards towards the same efforts. In 2011 alone, the DDCF foundation extended 9 three-year grants and awards of up to 194,000 US dollars, each to hospitals, universities and research institutes that have existent REHSS programs for students hailing from minority groups that are underrepresented in the field of medicine. In this effect, each institution that receives the awards or the grants is to use DDCF funds to introduce at least 10 underrepresented minority students to clinically relevant research programs, every year. High school students who hail from underrepresented groups or background are required to sign up the mailing list belonging to a given Medical Research Program (Hammond, Karlin and Thimonier, 2010). References Aydeniz, M., Baksa, K. & Skinner, J. (2011). Understanding the Impact of an Apprenticeship- Based Scientific Research Program on High School Students' Understanding of Scientific Inquiry. Journal of Science Education & Technology, 20 (4), 403-421. Burgin, R. S., Sadler, D. T. & Koroly, J. M. (2011). High School Student Participation in Scientific Research Apprenticeships: Variation in Relationships among Student Experiences and Outcomes. Research Science Education, 42 (2), 440-444. Ellis, R.A., Goodyear, P., Bliuc, A.M. & Ellis, M. (2011). High school students' experiences of learning through research on the Internet. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 27 (6), 503-515. Groves, R. & Welsh, B. (2010). The high school experience: What students say? Issues in Educational Research, 20 (2), 87-104. Hammond, C., Karlin, D. & Thimonier, J. (2010). Creative Research Science Experiences for High School Students. PLoS Biology, 8 (9), 1-3. Jacobs, P. (2009). Building Excitement, Experience and Expertise in Computational Science among Middle and High School Students. Computational Science, 5545 (3), 15-24. Kirby, D. & Gardner, M. (2010) The Schooling They Need: Voicing Student Perspectives on Their Fourth Year in Senior High School. Canadian Journal of Education, 33 (1), 108- 139. Knesting, K. (2008) Students at Risk for School Dropout: Supporting Their Persistence. Preventing School Failure, 52 (4), 3-10. Kovalik, C. L., Yutzey, S. D. & Piazza, L. M. (2012). Assessing Change in High School Student Information Literacy Using the Tool for Real-Time Assessment of Information Literacy Skills. Contemporary Issues in Education Research, 5 (3), 153-166. Roberts, L. F. & Wassersug, R. J. (2009). Does Doing Scientific Research in High School Correlate with Students Staying in Science? A Half-Century Retrospective Study. Research in Science Education, 39 (2), 251-256. Shell, D. F., Snow, G. R. & Claes, D. R. (2011). The Cosmic Ray Observatory Project: Results of a Summer High-School Student, Teacher, University Scientist Partnership Using a Capstone Research Experience. Journal of Science Education and Technology, 20 (2) 161-177. Stepath, C. M. (2005). Reef Education Evaluation: Environmental Knowledge and Reef Experience. Online Submission, Paper presented at the National Marine Education Association Conference, 20 (5), 22-37. Taylor, A. M. & Marri, A. R. (2012). Making Sense of Citizenship: Urban Immigrant Middle and High School Students' Experiences with and Perspectives On Active and Engaged Democratic Citizenship. Ohio Social Studies Review, 48 (1), 33-44. Read More