Meeting Abstract
Florida Atlantic University High School (FAUHS) is a public, dual enrollment high school on the campus of Florida Atlantic University. FAUHS students begin college full time at FAU following a rigorous 9th grade year and typically accumulate 3-years’ worth of college credit by the time they graduate high school. To ensure the students are prepared and qualified to enter graduate programs 1 year after high school graduation, we created a program to guide them through undergraduate research experiences at FAU. The FAUHS Research Program supports students in conducting undergraduate research and scholarly inquiry in a variety of disciplines, while helping them navigate aspects related to minors conducting research in a university setting. This support is scaffolded into three levels – exposure, skill-building, and intensive research experience – and consists of a series of research methodology courses, individualized mentoring, and access to the FAUHS Owls Imaging Laboratory (OI Lab). The research program goals include introducing the students to research being conducted at the university; developing basic, commonly-used research skills; finding a faculty research mentor; developing a research project proposal; finding and applying for research funding; performing data analysis; and presenting and publishing research results. The OI Lab is a research space within the high school where students can actively conduct research with or without a university mentor. University researchers use the lab in exchange for mentorship of FAUHS students. This program enables the students to strategically refine their career paths, build transferable skills, effectively compete for future opportunities, and make a real impact in their discipline.
