Perhaps the ultimate challenge a high school (or for that matter college) science student can undertake is independent science research. Research requires a large time commitment and much dedication. In any original and independent study, there are no guarantees that an experiment will even work until one tries. A very small percentage of students get involved in original, challenging research, especially if there is no local college or university where an interested student may go to obtain such an opportunity in a professor's lab. For those relatively few students who do proceed with this type of investigation, the experience can be rewarding and even life changing. This paper provides some recommendations to teachers who have given thought to getting students involved in science research, but have not been able to jump-start a program that can maintain itself over time. Several examples of topics that have led not only to good science but also to local and national recognition for the students will be presented, as well as a brief outline of some top national science competitions where high school students can participate.

Topics
Education, Teaching
1.
The web addresses for three of the top national science competitions are: Intel Science Talent Search, http://www.intel.com/education/sts; Siemens-Westinghouse Science and Technology Competition, http://www.siemens-foundation.org/science/science_and_technology.htm; and Junior Science and Humanities Symposium, http://www.jshs.org. There are also other venues for high school students to present their research, such as symposia and numerous local and state science fairs.
2.
SuperQuest is a past NSF-sponsored program (1990–1995) that provided a three-week summer training for four high school teams and year-long funding for individual students to conduct high-level research projects requiring a supercomputer for completion.
3.
For our research manual and other information about high school research, see http://facweb.eths.k12.il.us/chemphys/science_research_papers.htm. There are also links to a variety of student papers that were submitted to competitions.
4.
To view this research project, entitled “Experiments with Vertically Vibrated Granular Materials,” see EPAPS Document E-PHTEAH-42-008406.
This document may be retrieved via the EPAPS homepage (http://www.aip.org/pubservs/epaps.html) or from ftp.aip.org in the directory/epaps/ in the phys_teach folder. See the EPAPS homepage for more information.
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© 2004 American Association of Physics Teachers.
2004
American Association of Physics Teachers

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