<p>I really, really, REALLY want to do a research project sometime before the end of high school.
You know, one of those really interesting ones that sometimes end up in Intel/Siemens fairs.
My field of interest is definitely biology, but the problem is that I haven't studied much of it in school. (I'm in grade ten.)
I've read all of the biology sections in our science textbook and done a little bit of research outside of that, but I still definitely do not know enough to create an amazing research project.
When I was skimming through the Intel/Siemens websites, I noticed that a lot of the winners and semifinalists had mentors (actually, probably most of them).
So I did some research on that as well. Apparently a lot of these kids didn't actually come up with the ideas for their projects -- it was just them helping university profs in their research and learning a lot from it and somehow getting credit and recognition for it.</p>
<p>Is this actually true? How can I find a mentor? Would I just contact the university and see if there are any profs interested in working with a high school student (since we don't get paid but college kids would)? I am willing to wait until next year when I learn a lot more of biology in school, but would it be a good idea to do this?
Also, the kids who just take on their mentors' projects -- do they actually get credit for that being their project and their work? I'm guessing none of those kids used "Science Buddies" or anything for their work, so... yeah. :P</p>
<p>Any information at all would be greatly appreciated. :] Thanks.</p>