Turning High School Students into MRS Authors and Presenters: The Magic of the Garcia Summer Scholars Program
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Turning High School Students into MRS Authors and Presenters: The Magic of the Garcia Summer Scholars Program Rebecca Isseroff 1,2, Julia Budassi2, and Miriam Rafailovich2 1
Lawrence High School, Cedarhurst, NY 11516 Stony Brook University, Dept. of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, Stony Brook, NY 11794. 2
ABSTRACT More than 50 high school students each year learn how to conduct science research at the Garcia Summer Scholars Program at Stony Brook University through hands-on, inquiry-based methods. Started in 1998, the program has already provided hundreds of students from diverse backgrounds a unique opportunity for outstanding scientific performance and achievement. In this paper, we present a brief overview of how the program operates as well as several case studies that display the effect of the Garcia Program on student accomplishment. The evidence provided demonstrates that the Garcia Program has had an overwhelmingly positive effect on its many student participants, regardless of their background or socio-economic status. INTRODUCTION The Garcia Summer Scholars Program at Stony Brook University is a research apprenticeship program that mentors each year more than 50 high school students from diverse ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds. Over the course of the six-to-eight-week program, the students learn to conduct university-level research in Materials Science and Engineering. Many students, because of their experiences in the Garcia Program, have gone on to win high school research competitions such as the Siemens Competition and the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair. Some have presented their projects at Materials Research Society Meeting poster sessions and at the American Physical Society; published in refereed journals; and have even acquired patents. In many cases, students in the program who come from poorly funded school districts are able to realize many more of these science and education-related achievements than their peers who do not participate in the program. Literature on science education suggests that the environment provided by the Garcia Program for students is one in which students reach learning goals and become engaged with material. A 2003 study titled “The Laboratory in Science Education: Foundations for the Twenty-First Century,” asserts that laboratory activities have special potential for communication of important science concepts because these inquiry-based activities engage students in learning and require them to justify their conclusions with evidence [1]. The Garcia Program, which takes place in a university research facility and is run by faculty and graduate students who conduct the research being taught even when they are not working as mentors for the program, engages students in inquiry-based activities that are successful science education tools. Furthermore, to teach students how to conduct research in a hands-on manner, the mentorship in the Garcia Program is personal and supportive of individual students, ensuring each student’s engageme
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