WELCOME TO SCIENCE OUTREACH at Wellesley College
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Research Experience for High School Students
WC Mentors:
- During Orientation and in the first day, the mentor will explain to the student the overall purpose behind their particular area of research and methodologies employed in their laboratory. They will give an overview of what they are trying to accomplish during the summer and what set of experiments they plan to do. They will also discuss with the students how she can be part of this and what her role will be around the lab. The role of the high school student will vary from one lab to another.
- At the beginning of each meeting with the student, the mentor is responsible for explaining to the student what the day's experiments entail and how it fits into the grand scheme of what they are trying to accomplish.
- The mentor will explain the students the experiment methodology in a stepwise fashion while the student observes how the experiment is being carried out, taking into account that the student may not be closely familiar with the background.
- The mentor is encouraged to involve the student in a piece of their experiment, allowing the student to apply the concepts she learns and practice the skills that she observes.
- The mentor is encouraged to give the student supplementary reading related to the methods employed in the experiment and previous experiments on which they are basing their research.
- We remind the mentors that students may be frustrated with experiments which don't work at first. They should keep in mind that this may be the first time the high school student is exposed to research with an unknown set of outcomes and remind them that this is the basis behind real-life scientific research. They should explain to the students how to proceed in cases where experiments don't work as expected.
- Some useful links for Mentor preparation:
More Info
High School Research Experience Main
Background and Students
Logistics and Responsibilities (For Students and Mentors)