A win for science: the benefits of mentoring high school students in the lab.

Involving high school students in research has been shown to be beneficial for the student. These programs not only contribute to student understanding and confidence in scientific material, but also foster an interest in pursuing careers in science in both the short and long term (Knox et al., 2003; Markowitz, 2004). It also fosters an understanding of scientific method and process, something which may not be the easiest for students to learn in the classroom. Indeed, the most recently released framework for K-12 scientific education strives to create changes in the classroom to teach students scientific practices; including carrying out investigations, analyzing data, and using evidence to create and evaluate scientific arguments (NRC, 2012). However, there will be a lag to implement these standards and, in the past, according to the National Research Council, such efforts have left much room for improvement. As such, today’s high school students are encouraged to seek out research opportunities, especially if they are interested in majoring in a science and/or applying to a top school. Moreover, in a recent statement President Obama suggested that scientists should think of creative ways to engage young people in science and engineering to improve student achievement in math and science (Obama, 2009). Despite that these experiences are shown to benefit the student, researchers are often resistant to the idea. Even though modern day NSF and NIH proposals require an outreach component, only 18% of these efforts are focused on K-12 education (Kamenetzky, 2012). This resistance stems from a lack of peer support and reward for these efforts, and a lack of time to devote to them (Andrews et al., 2005; Ecklund et al., 2012). This attitude is not only present among professors but also graduate students (deKoven and Trumbull, 2002). In my own experience talking to people about having high school research assistants, the predominant view appears to be that a high school student would not be able to generate useful or valid data. As such, tasks given to high school research assistants are often menial at best, perhaps making this a self-fulfilling prophecy. Can we have our cake and eat it too? Can we create a lab environment that (1) allows high school students to learn about the process of science (2) get real work out of them and (3) fulfill our granting agency’s outreach requirement? While a few years ago I too would have been a skeptic, my mind has been changed by two high school students. Here, I would like to tell my story, and a few tricks that I learned along the way so that you, the reader, can decide if mentoring a high school student is worthwhile. I started working at Caltech in the fall of 2010. I had switched the animal model system I was using and was somewhat lost in the process. It took me six months just to learn how to work with a different animal. I knew that I needed data and publications and fast. To do that, I needed help. I attempted to find undergraduates who were interested in my work, but to no avail. I had nearly given up on the idea of acquiring an assistant when I got contacted by a colleague. He had been contacted by the local high school’s AP biology instructor about high school students who were interested in a real-life research experience. My colleague had two excellent candidates but felt that he only had space for one. I jumped on the opportunity to have the other student in my lab. I had no clue what to expect, but figured that some help was better than none. When my first high school student entered the lab, I was terrified. What little I knew about education, I had learned from being a teaching assistant in graduate school—what was I going to do with a 16 year old kid? So, I did what I suspect any researcher would do—I gave the student a seminar introduction, slides and all. I told him about the previous work, what I was trying to do, and where I was currently. Despite that my work is about how leeches find blood sources, the kid was still sitting there when I finished, though I suspect he was appreciative that I did so in under 20 minutes. I had finished my introduction. Now what?