On an individual level, you can start by identifying some of your research interests and thinking about what topics or areas of study you might be passionate about. This could be anything from neuroscience to astrology to computer science. If you’ve competed in competitions like Synopsys before, you might have seen the wide variety of categories, so don’t be afraid of choosing a topic that might not be as common — pursue what you are genuinely interested in, even if it might be niche. After you identify what topics you enjoy, try to look into current research on your areas of interest. This way, you can learn more about these topics while also seeing if there are any research gaps where you can contribute. Lastly, I would advise you to find a teacher or student mentor that provides guidance and support. You can reach out to students and teachers at Harker, or even professionals outside of school to see if they would be willing to mentor you in your endeavors. It’s also not a bad idea to join the Research Club! We provide really valuable resources and opportunities to collaborate with other students who are interested in research, and we also present on many useful topics throughout the year.
At Harker, you can also take Mr. Spenner’s Research classes, which are great introductions to the basics of research. The Research Methods course aims to introduce students who do not have much experience in research to experimental design and project creation. In the class, there are various opportunities to conduct statistical analysis, write formal reports, and deliver oral presentations, which are all very important skills in research itself, as well as if you plan to compete in any science competitions. Those who are interested can continue on to take the Advanced Research Class, where students can create and complete their individual research project. Students can enroll in the Advanced class after taking the Research Methods course, or if they have enough experience in preliminary research, they can enroll directly, as determined by Mr. Spenner.
If you conduct a project and do not achieve the results you are hoping for, it definitely might be disappointing at first. But that’s science! There are still takeaways that you can identify from your experience, whether that be understanding why your results did not work out or pinpointing mistakes you made throughout the process. There are so many research opportunities in high school, so you can perceive initial failures as an opportunity to learn and grow. Almost every student researcher has faced difficulties or challenges in their research, so it’s important to consider what you can do differently next time and how you can improve your results in future projects. I would also recommend talking with a mentor or teacher, as they might be able to provide suggestions and feedback that you might not think of yourself. Also, the value of a science project does not solely lie in the results, but also in the process of conducting a project and learning from it. Overall, don’t get discouraged if your project fails — just make sure to not make the same mistakes next time.
Also "bad" results often lead to great next projects because the challenge you faced may lead or inspire you to make a new innovation and design a different experiment to address the problem. Some research communities and venues deeply value papers reporting these "bad" results as valuable data points for future research directions and projects.
Writing an abstract for a research paper is very important. In many instances, it serves as a way to draw readers in who do not have the time to read your entire paper. The purpose of an abstract is to give a concise overview of your research, including your research question, methods, results, and conclusion. That being said, here are some general guidelines on how you should structure your abstract.
To start, briefly introduce your research topic and explain its significance. State the objective of your study, and what you hypothesized. Then, you can describe some of the research methods you used, including the procedures and necessary materials. (Note that you don’t want to go into too much detail here, as talking about all of your methods might take up too much space, and abstracts sometimes have a word count) You then want to summarize the results of your study using statistics you determined or qualitative data, and any conclusions you drew from your study. Lastly, you can also go into any implications of your results and any future work you plan to do on your project.
For a more detailed explanation, you can review Research Club’s presentation on writing abstracts here.
There are a lot of students that do research with a mentor/independently without an additional science project support advisor/service. We strongly recommend that you consider what you will be getting out of a potential project support service. These services should definitely not be doing your project. Your relationship to a service should be more like a mentee to a mentor, where they guide you through the process of research instead of doing your research for you. If there is anything suspicious about these programs such as high amounts of secrecy and exorbitant charges, it is better to avoid them. If you choose to use one of these services or are confused as to whether you should, please have a conversation with Ms. Chetty to discuss what they will be doing for you.
Even if you decide to use a service, you will still have to go through Harker’s selection process, which will include the following:
You will first go through a pre screening process, where you will stand in front of a panel of science teachers, who will ask you questions about your project. You will have to do this even before you submit your proposal, and you will have to have a good understanding of your project.
If you pass this process, you will then be able to submit your proposal, and this will be similar to the process in previous years.
If you are selected, you will then have to maintain a logbook, which will be checked by your mentor at least once every two weeks.
You can consider Harker Research Symposium, which happens every March at Harker and is an excellent venue to present your research in an oral or poster session. You genuinely get larger, more curious and engaged audiences than even at Synopsys, including some industry professionals, students, and parents.
Other science fair competitions include the Junior Science and Humanities Symposium (JSHS), which is similar to Synopsys but requires a research paper as one of the application requirements. There are also competitions such as the BioGENEius Challenge and BioEHSC that you can compete in as well. Some other research-related competitions include ExploraVision and the Envirothon. We encourage you to find your own competitions that are specific to your field of interest and to do research for the experience, regardless of awards at competitions. Another path is to write a paper about your research and submit it to a conference or journal (high school-level or professional). This is often more enriching and realistic to the research process in the real world than competitions are.
You do not have to do competitions, but they are a great way to share your research with the wider community and get to learn more about the science happening in the world/around us. You also get to meet other students that are excited about research and are doing amazing projects.
There are also other opportunities other than competitions, you could also consider focusing on publishing a paper and presenting at conferences.
In terms of college, a large part is just showing that you have experience with the research process and also showing your interest in some subjects.
You can always just describe what you’ve done and that’s great and all, but winning awards at competitions, presenting at conferences, and publishing papers are definitely ways to show colleges in a more “concrete/measurable” way that you’ve put significant time/effort into research
That being said though, don’t completely fixate on competitions since the most important parts about doing research are still picking up the technical/soft skills and really understanding the research process (e.g. what you’ll really be writing about and addressing in growth or personal learning essays)
Remember to get a good night’s sleep the day before and be well rested when you are presenting and also make sure that you have eaten breakfast. There will be long periods of time in between each judge, so you may want to bring something to eat.
You may be wondering what judges look for in a presentation. Different judges (special award, grand prize, category judges) will have different criteria, and it’s difficult to know what each one wants, but iIn general, they are looking for creativity, a depth of knowledge in your project, and they want to understand your methodology and why you did each step.
Just like with any other presentation, remember to practice with someone else and prepare for potential follow-up-questions. Know your project very well and be prepared to talk about your future plans with the topic.
The first research class that students usually take is Research Methods. This class has no prerequisites and introduces you to introductory topics such as experimental design, analysis, and communication. You will also get to conduct a practice project in groups, where you will perform a statistical analysis and give an oral presentation on it. The other research class offered is Honors Advanced Research, where you will have more control over what you do. You will get to set your own goals for your research project, and you will have the option to continue your research project from the Research Methods, or you can choose to start a new project in your field of choice. The prerequisite for this class is Research Methods, but you can also get department approval to skip the prerequisite. Harker also offers many subject specific classes that may be helpful, depending on the field of your research project.
You must have taken the Research Methods class to be eligible for the Advanced Research class.
Harker usually does not allow students to borrow materials to conduct the project at home unless it is a Harker project and the project requires you to take materials home (and you still have to ask your research supervisor). The only case when you can work on your project at home is if you are doing a dry lab project, in which case you will not need to borrow materials.
Harker is a BSL-1 (biosafety level one) lab. Generally, no mammalian or vertebrate subjects, no human cells, no biological agents that can cause disease, no pathogenic bacteria, no transgenic (GMO) crops or viruses, and no nuclear chemistry. If you’re unsure if your project will be allowed, clarify rules with a science teacher. Other topics are generally open! Harker also has a lot of cool equipment, such as a DNA sequencer, flow hood, fume hood, autoclave, spectrometers, and numerous types of microscopes. You can get funding to do your research from the school, even if you aren’t planning on participating in competitions like Synopsys. Research funded by Harker does have budget restrictions, so keep that in consideration.
Great question! Please reference Research Club’s summer program presentation for a general overview on some of the best summer programs that we’ve compiled over the years: 2024 US Workshop: Summer Research.
However, it’s important to remember that these are just a few of many amazing summer programs. If you are not accepted into these programs, it is definitely not the end of the world! There are tons of other quality programs that might suit your specific research interests more. Even if you do not get into the best summer programs, you will inevitably learn important lessons wherever you go.
Having attended both these types of programs before, I can confidently say that they each have their own benefits. However, the better choice really depends on your own goals and preferences. In my personal experience, I think that a summer program that results in making a research paper is very helpful in improving your writing skills, as you can practice translating your research into words and create a tangible outcome of your results and conclusions. The only downside of writing a research paper is the longer time commitment, as it can be very time-consuming to produce a high-quality paper. Creating a poster or capstone project can also allow you to practice conveying complex information visually, which is an important skill for many science competitions that require you to showcase your project on a tri-fold poster board. Also, you get more experience with presenting your scientific work to audiences through the latter option, which is a great way to enhance your speaking skills. Overall, if you enjoy spending a lot of time writing and want to improve your research and writing skills, a program that results in a paper might be the better choice; and if you enjoy presenting information in a more creative way, and you do not want to spend most of your summer producing a written paper, a poster or capstone project probably suits you better.
When cold-emailing professors or labs, it’s important to be respectful and straight-to-the-point: remember that they have other priorities, so you should emphasize exactly why they should allow you to join their lab. Start by introducing yourself briefly, with your name, school, background, and relevant experiences and qualifications. If you are just starting out with research and do not have much experience, you can highlight what parts of their lab interest you the most, and what you aim to learn from working with the professor. Mention why you are interested in their research specifically: out of all the professors and labs, why them? Clearly state the purpose of your email and express your interest in joining their lab or working on a project under their mentorship. Remember to be enthusiastic and kind, and offer to contribute your skills. Ask them what time slots you can expect to begin if accepted, and thank them for their consideration.
You can reference Research Club’s presentation on cold-emailing professors here (slides 4-11).
There are a few different options you can take in this situation: if the timeline allows, you can wait to hear back from your top choice summer program before making a decision about your backup program, and this way, you can weigh your options and decide which program you want to attend based on the offers you receive. However, if the deadline for accepting the backup offer is approaching and you haven’t heard back from your top choice program, I would consider reaching out to your top choice program through email. You can explain your situation and ask about the status of your application, and the admissions team will most likely be understanding about your conflict. However, if your top choice program does not reply back to you in time, you can consider accepting the backup program just to secure your spot, as more often than not, these programs have an extensive waitlist. This ensures that you have a summer program lined up and secured, even if you do not end up going to your top choice program.
This is very difficult to arrange, as you need an adult in the lab with you at all times. However, filming your subjects or samples is possible. You might also be able to take projects home, but be careful with the rules for Synopsys rules.