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This idea that kids working in labs are all just lab technicians is just plain wrong. Last summer, my kid worked with a professor to tackle an enormously challenging problem. He met with his mentor briefly a couple of times a week and the rest of the time he was on his own having to teach himself very high level things in several different disciplines just to be able to think about the problem correctly. He wrote a research paper but is still working on an unsolved part of problem. The professor cannot just “give” him the answer because none exists at the moment!
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<p>Wouldn’t it make more sense to learn about a field in grad school, then do the research? What is the purpose of doing the research when you are in high school?</p>