Students enrolled in the internship program work with a mentor three to four days a week during the school year to complete the requirements for the course. Each Monday and on selected Fridays, students are scheduled to meet with a Research Practicum teacher on campus. During this time students will be introduced to research design, statistics, techniques for surveying related literature, and computer programs for word processing, graphing, and statistical analysis of data. Research Practicum teachers review research proposals and serve as a coach for all aspects of the course. Selecting a Project An essential component of the internship program is selection of a research project.
Students look to the mentor for guidance in selecting an appropriate project.
Many mentors suggest a project that is part of the facility's ongoing research. Other mentors help students design a special project. Substantial data must be collected by February, with all data collected and analyzed by April. Projects must be experimental in design and include a dependent and independent variable. The independent variable must change and the dependent variable should be measured.