NEWSInquiry and Research Across All Grades Fuel Interests and Passions
Sept. 25 2024, Published 1:51 a.m. ET
The Connecticut-based institution King School offers independent research opportunities for students of all ages. Guided by teachers, King students dive deep into topics they are passionate about while learning valuable skills like critical thinking, analysis, and communicating clearly and effectively. The school applies an inquiry-based approach to education that teaches children to ask questions and problem-solve. Research can be found everywhere at King School, whether in STEM, humanities, visual or performing arts, or even athletics.
In an ideal ecosystem with an optimal combination of temperature, light, shade, humidity, and lots of determination, King School students successfully bred a critically endangered frog. The arrival of the three red-banded tadpoles took place not in a South American rainforest but in an upper school biology classroom in a student-built vivarium that was transformed to reflect their habitat.
“It's crazy!” says Ellie Wayland ’23, who has seen the project take shape since her freshman year. “It’s so incredible that something like that could happen right here, that we are helping the survival of an entire species right here in the King School science classroom.”
Academic life at King extends far beyond the classroom. “Every athletic experience lends itself to learning,” Dean of Athletics Micah Hauben says.
For example, members of the crew team explore the relationship between buoyancy force and water pressure to optimize boat performance and crew technique. Other student-led projects reflect students’ individual interests. A student with a passion for baseball came up with a unique take on the traditional baseball bat. He successfully built a functioning prototype in the school’s innovation laboratory, creating a new aerodynamic tool inspired by his passion for sports and woodwork. Another student researched the environmental implications of traditional hair products, innovating a new hairspray that minimized environmental damage and retained its use through differing levels of humidity.
King School offers the Tom Main Liberal Arts Fellowship, which awards two sophomores to work with a faculty mentor in researching, writing, and presenting a formal paper on a liberal arts topic of major global interest. Proposals have been focused on climate change, the rise of nationalism, and healthcare models in developed countries.
High school students who demonstrate the ability and interest in achieving true excellence within science, technology, engineering, and/or mathematics in global competition preparation and/or laboratory research experiences can apply for the ASPIRE course. The Advanced Science Program for Independent Research and Engineering (ASPIRE) is a flagship program for King School. It is designed to promote independent research and fosters the school’s underlying aims to promote intellectual curiosity and growth through research.
The program accelerates students by researching and developing a principled idea, and teaching them how to communicate it effectively. Students in the program have the opportunity to intern at a top research facility like Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, Yale New Haven Hospital, or Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
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Some of these young and talented scientists have been published for the work completed during these internships. Past projects have included environmental remediation, gene editing, understanding eye cancer, and designing spacecraft. As they prepare for higher education, students are guided through multiple research and development stages of their science and engineering projects, encouraging discovery and independent learning. Coupled with the school’s extensive offering of extra-curricular activities, ASPIRE roots all elements of learning in real-life application.
Students enrolled in the program have gained recognition at the Connecticut Junior Science and Humanities Symposium (CT-JSHS) and the Connecticut STEM Fair. At the fair, ten King School students participated, five of whom made it to the podium by the end of the event. Four students were recognized in individual categories, from environmental to physical sciences. The CT-JSHS competition selected only thirty of the top students in the state to compete, with King School student Antonia Kolb qualifying for the top tier of the competition. After being bitten by a tick during her summer break, she researched and developed a mobile application DeTickt, designed to assess ticks for others in her position. She reflects on her successes: “I really enjoyed presenting my work and listening to other inspiring projects. I am so honored that I won first place and am excited to attend Nationals in New Mexico.”
King School also offers students the chance to graduate with a Certificate of Distinction for those who want to explore topics like Art and Design, Global Studies, Leadership, Performing Arts, STEM, and World Languages more deeply. Every student who graduates with distinction completes an in-depth independent research project.
The successful projects borne from the many independent research programs reflect King School’s dedication to its student body, with its student-led approach fostering new ideas in the future of research and the types of real-life applications that come from learning in this way.
