The SCI Institute holds a strong belief that providing research opportunities to undergraduate and even high school students will not only encourage them to pursue studies in the sciences, but also give them a head start in their future academic lives. Being allowed to work side by side with PhD-level scientists within a real research institute moves science from something that happens in a text book or highly structured laboratory to the dynamic work environment shared by scientists around the world.
In this year's high school summer intern program, the SCI Institute invited four students, one each from Juan Diego Catholic High School, The Waterford School, and two from West High School. These students were given the opportunity to work with a lead software developer from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) sponsored Center for Integrative Biomedical Computing (CIBC). Their task seemed simple: take Seg3D and ImageVis3D (two advanced software tools developed by the CIBC), find a dataset of interest to the student, load that data, and experiment with the software on both desktop and iPad versions. And then, present your results to your high school peers. In the end, the students learned that research is a full-contact sport, not just a homework assignment. They had to 'dig-in', expand their knowledge, and learn about their subjects of interest, their data, their software, even their computers. In the end, the students translated this process and knowledge to science classes at their school. And, the top question after the presentations? Oddly enough, "how do I get an internship like yours?" Kids excited about a science internship! Mission Accomplished.
The SCI Institute holds a strong belief that providing research opportunities to undergraduate and even high school students will not only encourage them to pursue studies in the sciences, but also give them a head start in their future academic lives. Being allowed to work side by side with PhD-level scientists within a real research institute moves science from something that happens in a text book or highly structured laboratory to the dynamic work environment shared by scientists around the world.