Frequently Asked Questions

Unfortunately, high school STEM curricula don’t teach students how science is done or how scientific knowledge has been discovered. The emphasis on spoon-feeding students facts and equations, then rewarding them for “not getting things wrong” on tests, is woefully insufficient for citizens to participate in or even understand modern issues in health, environment, AI, and other impacts of science and technology. High school tends only to train students to be uncreative and uncritical consumers of scientific knowledge. They graduate without learning what an experiment really is or how breakthrough scientific discoveries in world history were made.

Doing research teaches students to think scientifically and what it means to be a producer of knowledge. Students learn how to ask a research question, formulate an hypothesis, then design a course of action to test it. They begin to learn what science is all about, far beyond the multiple choice questions on their unit tests. 

Colleges and especially graduate programs like to see that STEM applicants have done some research because it demonstrates interest, dedication, and intellectual vitality. The growth your student will experience from our mentorship will open their eyes to the world of STEM knowledge creation. Their academic program applications will stand out because they will write about the experience of doing research in their essays. More importantly, they will begin their programs more prepared than their peers for the demands of their STEM programs.

Often, they'll do just fine or even great. If you know your student is intelligent and does well when interested or motivated by the material or a great teacher, chances are they'll love doing research and will excel at it. You know that all-too-common question students ask in STEM classes, "When am I going to use this?" Our research students never ask that question, because they've either already learned what they need, or we teach them what they need to know right before they use it. Because everything is relevant and used immediately for a practical experience, students remember what they learn from their research better than anything from a regular classroom.

Many of the larger, more corporate outfits will take your tuition dollars, give 20 or 30% to your student's mentor, who will generally be an inexperienced PhD student or postdoc, and use the rest of your funds to pay for their expensive marketing operations and as distributions to their investors. Wouldn't you rather all of your tuition funds to be used to pay for an experienced full-time mentor not distracted with finishing their own research projects or meeting quarterly targets? 

Much of the competition also doesn't provide a long enough mentoring period for your student to complete their project and present or publish it successfully. Three or even six months is usually not enough time, so your student will only have a partially complete project by the time the clock runs out on these other programs. In fact, several of our students have approached us for assistance with closing out and documenting projects begun during summer programs or with other mentors. Our research programs are 1-year long to give your student the best chance of achieving success. We firmly believe that we succeed only when our students do. We're not doing this just for the money or to grow as fast as possible.  

It takes more than being good at research to be a good mentor to high school students. Frankly, it's probably not possible to do a great job with one's first few students because mentors have forgotten the very real constraints and limitations that high school students face. They have limited time, resources, generally don't have access to a laboratory, and are still learning key STEM skills. Only after coaching several students through projects will a mentor obtain a sense of how to appropriately scope projects for high school researchers.  

Most of our students can complete their projects in about 100 hours of total time. With us, they have a full year in which to spend those hours.