Research Development Institute
WashU Arts & Sciences Pre-College Programs
This institute focuses on conducting and engaging research. While different disciplines require different ways of conducting research, all disciplines require that one engage in research. To engage in research means to be responsive to and in conversation with others, their ideas, and their research methods. The different ways that we can engage and conduct research—and what we understand research to be—will be our topic of study. Come prepared to contribute your views on these topics and be willing to complicate your current views of research and the ways it can be conducted.
Over the course of two weeks you will conduct research on a topic of your choice, which means that when possible, we will focus on practical, applied work with primary and secondary sources, which should provide a good foundation for advanced research and writing in college, and we’ll give some thought to the different methods by which different audiences and scholarly disciplines select, analyze, evaluate, incorporate, and document the works of others. This is not a lab-based research program.
This program is ideal for students who want to develop their critical thinking and research skills, and explore deeper a specific academic interest or field of study.
High School Summer Institute students live on campus in one of our top-ranked, air-conditioned residence halls. In addition to course work, students participate in specialized college readiness, community, and academic success enrichment activities.