Teachers and Students: Try to Publish your basement science work as a class lab!

I want to encourage teachers and students to, when appropriate, publish articles in professional journals as co-authors for some of your 'basement science' research projects. If you have a project that really does use simple, affordable equipment, and it is effective in getting measured or observed results, share it with the broader high school education community. For example, in physics the leading professional journal for high schools is The Physics Teacher (TPT), published from the American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT). For high school science, The Science Teacher (TST) is the leading general journal put out by the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA). I'm sure there are other teacher journals out there in other disciplines. The point is, these professional organizations have publications that go out to thousands and tens of thousands of members on a monthly basis, and they are looking to publish creative, doable activities that many other teachers and students may be interested in. These organizations also put on multiple national and regional conferences every year, and those are a chance to share your results and work so others may use it or some variation of what you've done.

Some examples of research project work I have published in TPT and TST are with hydraulic jump, Faraday waves on vibrated droplets, temperature dependence of kinetic friction, and a mechanical system that behaves in a counterintuitive way. Three of these papers were co-written with students, and all were presented in a way that could be used as a classroom lab or inquiry activity, as well as modified to make new, novel research projects. Other students who had professor mentors have published in various journals, as well. Note that it is a rarity for high school students to be published in peer reviewed journals while still in high school. The exposure to your work is much greater than just posting on social media, where thousands of colleagues have access to it rather than perhaps a few dozen who follow you (unless you happen to have thousands of other teachers following you, but that is a rarity).

Publishing with students is great fun because it allows them to actually go through the entire research project, build their professional resume, and learn about the vital role of publication in science. Also, they see firsthand the process of publication, and how one may need to have a back and forth with the editor and anonymous reviewers, over many months time periods, before it is worthy of publication. Give it a try and have fun with it!