A Review of High School Level Astronomy Student Research Projects over the last two decades

TL;DR

This paper reviews two decades of high school astronomy research projects, analyzing their history, key differences, challenges faced, and offering suggestions for future initiatives to enhance science education.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview and classification of 22 major high school astronomy research projects since the 1990s, highlighting success factors and challenges.

Findings

Identification of major project dimensions and differences

Analysis of factors affecting project success

Recommendations for future high school astronomy research initiatives

Abstract

Since the early 1990s with the arrival of a variety of new technologies, the capacity for authentic astronomical research at the high school level has skyrocketed. This potential, however, has not realized the bright-eyed hopes and dreams of the early pioneers who expected to revolutionise science education through the use of telescopes and other astronomical instrumentation in the classroom. In this paper, a general history and analysis of these attempts is presented. We define what we classify as an Astronomy Research in the Classroom (ARiC) project and note the major dimensions on which these projects differ before describing the 22 major student research projects active since the early 1990s. This is followed by a discussion of the major issues identified that affected the success of these projects and provide suggestions for similar attempts in the future.