Student Research Initiative
Doing research alone is already difficult.
Teaching others to do research is even harder — especially when the ‘others’ are four middle schoolers who care far more about snack time than about independent variable control methods.
At first, I thought I just needed to repeat what I had learned from professors in the lab.
But I quickly realized: teaching isn’t about providing answers — it’s about making someone want to ask questions.
One time, a student asked me,
“Why do we have to record the margin of error every time we measure something? You can just tell by looking if it’s right.”
I was about to launch into an explanation about statistical accuracy — but I stopped myself. Instead, I poured two cups of water: one full, one almost full, and asked, “Which one would you drink?”
He answered, “The full one, obviously.”
I smiled and said, “That — is the difference between ‘looks right’ and ‘measured right.’”
And just like that, he understood.
During that time, I wasn’t just a leader — I was a translator. Translating from the language of science to the language of childlike curiosity.
At the end of the project, instead of asking them, “What did you learn?” — I asked,
“What will you do if you don’t know something in the future?”
“I’ll try it myself before asking someone else.”
That was the moment I knew: I didn’t just teach them how to run experiments — I taught them that they have the right not to know, and the ability to figure things out on their own