Chrysalis Academy Posted December 27, 2016 Share Posted December 27, 2016 Does anyone have an opinion on whether it would fly, for college admission purposes, to do one or two long-term research projects - designing an experiment, conducting it, and writing it up, an original research question - in lieu of canned labs, and use that as the lab component of a high school science class? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quark Posted December 27, 2016 Share Posted December 27, 2016 I think that sounds fabulous. My humble advice is to not think about it for college admissions purposes yet. Let it flow and be an amazing experience for her. Take notes as she progresses and she will have one exceptional essay topic right there! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chrysalis Academy Posted December 27, 2016 Author Share Posted December 27, 2016 Ahh, it's such a tightrope walk, isn't it? trying to balance giving them meaningful educational experiences vs. packaging them up neat and tidy. I think your advice is excellent. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JanetC Posted December 27, 2016 Share Posted December 27, 2016 What you are talking about is putting all your eggs in one basket. This requires a student who will stick with and follow through on a long term project. One of my kids does this, one of my kids just couldn't. If the student in question has a strong motivation to do a long-term project and has successfully completed some medium term (say 1 to 3 month projects) they are more clearly ready to move on to a longer term project. The risk is, you may get to May and be posting - My kid has not done (or has barely done) their long term project that was supposed to be their lab science grade this year... What do I do??? 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arcadia Posted December 27, 2016 Share Posted December 27, 2016 (edited) The local high school kids are doing that as part of the Siemens Competition in Math, Science & Technology so it is an extracurricular for them on their college applications. You can see their abstracts in the link below. Quite a few finalists from our state. http://www.siemens-foundation.org/en/programs/the-siemens-competition-in-math-science-technology/ ETA: It is a frequently asked question for private high schools open houses/campus tours. Edited December 27, 2016 by Arcadia 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quark Posted December 27, 2016 Share Posted December 27, 2016 (edited) JanetC and Arcadia bring up very good points. Do you want this to stand alone as the only science "labs" or do you want her to have more STEM in extracurriculars? If she has lots of other extracurriculars and if these labs are not related to them specifically, then perhaps you already have the answer to this question. How long term is long term? If she starts to work on them only sporadically, do you want these to be the only labs and research over 4 years? If she works on it regularly, it would make a very impressive 4-year commitment. If she works on it half that time, it might still yield exceptional results. But if it is too sporadic, just these 2 projects over 4 years might seem very sparse. If she works on it intensively and passionately for 6 months it might be more interesting and relevant and meaningful to her vs it becoming a drag because she *has* to do it over a full year or two or four. ETA: we have not done very long term projects so this and above was just my thinking aloud after completing applications this year. Kid did a 3-month intensive rocketry project but did not want to write up results so I mentioned it in course descriptions as part of his physics studies (he applied a lot of the physics he learned in this project). I did not give it a special mention as extracurriculars or give a half/ full lab science credit although it could have topped 100+ hours. Kid did a summer math research project and thereafter, another 8-month+ research project for math and wrote up some of that via a collaborative forum and gained a small recognition so these went into extracurriculars (and we mentioned the latter project was ongoing because he is still working on it). Edited December 27, 2016 by quark 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chrysalis Academy Posted December 27, 2016 Author Share Posted December 27, 2016 (edited) Thank you, these are all great points. My plans are evolving, so stay tuned. But I'm trying to refocus on my learning objectives and what I want her to get out of the class. I'm thinking of several short (1-3 months long), but meaningful, real research projects that she would design, conduct, analyze and write up the results. Instead of a bunch of short and/or canned labs. Edited December 27, 2016 by Chrysalis Academy 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lilaclady Posted December 28, 2016 Share Posted December 28, 2016 I think something like that will be better as an elective and not as the main science class. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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