Many high schools, including my school, Evanston Township High School (ETHS), have a long, rich tradition of students thinking about,
planning, designing and following through on high-level, independent science
research, much like what professional scientists, engineers and professors do. Many
of these students have done well in national competitions such as the Intel
Science Talent Search, the Siemens Science Competition, and others. But this is the exception, not the rule for high school science programs.
The vast majority of high schools do not have formal research programs, and do not have easy access to leading research universities in their communities. For the large science competitions, many of the winners each year come from the same relatively small group of high schools that have established programs, and most of those projects are done in professional laboratories or have professors or other professional researchers as mentors. Click here for more details about why there is a need for CABS.
The goal of this site is to
get more students, not only at ETHS but also nationally and globally, involved
in long-term, original research that
does not require a
professional laboratory.
THE
BASEMENT SCIENCE CONCEPT. In order to
facilitate and promote original research on a broad scale, this site does the following:
·
develops numerous research project ideas and questions that could lead to novel
results and require common, everyday materials and equipment, and publishes those ideas on the Internet for any teacher and student to use at schools with no
research program or outside lab options; this could help the vast majority of
high schools nationally and even globally (particularly inner-city and rural
schools) get curious, motivated students involved in real science, with a chance to make real discoveries, to the point where the student could be competitive in science competitions and/or possibly try to publish their results.
