Abstract:

The “IES Calderón de la Barca” High-School in Pinto (Madrid, Spain) launched in 2014 an initiative to develop research projects with students during their first year of “Bachillerato” (upper secondary school, aged 16 to 17). The main goal was to exploit the natural curiosity of students and offer them a full experience of a research project, introducing them in science and discovering new and interesting concepts and phenomena. Importantly, international researchers were invited to guide some projects, enriching the scientific profile, and offering the students a unique opportunity to work on high-level research projects. The projects belonged to multiple and even multidisciplinary fields (literature, physics, clinics…), so students could apply to the topic they were more interested in, which improved their motivation. The projects were not fully fixed and determined, but the students were encouraged to participate with their own ideas, guiding the project in a way that satisfied their own curiosity while following the rigorous steps of the scientific method. Students were granted with extra points to their marks based on the quality of their work.

During the academical year 2021/2022, a total of 65 students participated in the initiative. Projects were either proposed by the students and teachers or from external tutors, likely belonging to research centers. Students applied to the different projects, writing a short proposal. If they were selected, they had 6 months (from November to April) to complete the project with the guidance of a tutor. Once the projects were finished, they were evaluated by a committee, and they were granted with 0 to 5 points. These points were added to the final student’s marks (before averaging across subjects). Finally, selected students were further invited to defend their research in front of a jury composed by high-school teachers. The jury awarded each student with up to 4 additional points.

The initiative was a success in general terms based on the opinions collected from both students and tutors, with 36 students that finished the project. It was very appreciated by the students the inclusion of an experimental paradigm to test the initial hypothesis. Moreover, the external tutors highlighted the high quality of the final projects, with little differences when compared with a Master’s thesis. However, some issues were also reported. The dropout rate was relatively high, with 29 out of 65 students (45%) that didn’t finish the project. The initial motivation decayed after a few months, were an extra effort form the tutors is crucial to keep the students engaged to the project. Furthermore, the best ranked students were those with an external tutor with previous research experience. One reason could be that high-school teachers tend to propose more standard schoolwork’s, finding difficult their orientation to a scientific context. Future editions will work on these issues.

Keywords:

Research projects, Research and education, High Schools.