Imagine this: It’s late June (stay with me). Summer has just arrived (hard to imagine, I know). For many, this is the start of a period of relaxation. But for soon-to-be Senior Seminar research students, it marks the birth of a long-term academic undertaking that will ultimately produce a sophisticated and novel research study.
Over the summer, science research students formulate an idea based in the scientific literature, write a research plan, and work in labs/with mentors and university professors to conduct experiments and collect data. With projects in categories ranging from computational biology to medicine to the behavioral sciences, experimentation can take many forms, such as coding or working with live organisms.
Come September, students begin to draft and polish a manuscript highlighting the rationale, findings, and implications of their study under the guidance of teachers Ms. Nicole Spinelli and Dr. James Truglio. All seniors know the feeling of accomplishment from resolving comments each week until the November deadline. The students then submit their manuscripts to the Regeneron Science Talent Search, one of the most prestigious high school science research competitions.
However, despite producing an entire 20-page research paper, their senior year research experience is far from over. In mid-December, the seniors will present their projects at South High’s Research Round Tables, and later in the year, they will compete at the Long Island Science & Engineering Fair (LISEF), New York State Science and Engineering Fair (NYSSEF), Junior Science and Humanities Symposium (JSHS), and WAC Lighting Invitational Science Fair, among others, with some participants hopefully advancing to the International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF). Students will also continue to revise their manuscripts for submission to research journals and publications.
Conducting research is difficult; conducting research projects that are novel and multifaceted is even more so. However, despite having struggled through sleepless nights, multiple periods of frustration, hours of writing papers, and rehearsing presentation after presentation, research students take pride in the fact that by the end of the year, their projects will have been some of the most meaningful work they’ve ever done.
Photos and data were provided by their respective researchers.
