Student participation in Extended Research Projects and Science Fairs to promote higher order skills and tertiary opportunities in high achieving high school physics students.

Extended research projects provide opportunities for students to develop problem solving, research, analysis and evaluation skills. Science fairs, student conferences and science competitions foster communication and collaboration - integral skills for tertiary study and workforce participation. Participation in this sort of extra-curricular activities, enhances tertiary and scholarship applications. Modern communications technology has broadened the scope and accessibility of both research collaboration and science fairs. This presentation provides suggestions for mentoring and facilitating these experiences, in person and online, for high achieving high school physics students.

Our selective STEM high school offers students multiple opportunities to conduct extended research projects that lead to participation in local, national and international science fairs. Prior to 2020 the projects and fairs were conducted in-person with students travelling to host schools to present their results. The fair format is an invaluable opportunity for the students to hone their written and spoken communication skills and engage in cultural exchange with other fair attendees. From 2020 to 2022 many in-person fairs were cancelled and replaced with online fairs. While undoubtedly many benefits of in-person fairs were lost, the online fairs allowed teachers, mentors and students to develop online collaboration skills that have been maintained after the COVID pandemic passed.

Work management and videotelephony tools like Slack, Teams and Zoom can be used to facilitate collaborative projects with local, national and international schools. Online fairs can be hosted with hundreds of participants. For example, in January 2025 Ritsumeikan High School Japan hosted an online fair with 32 collaborative projects from 20 schools from 8 different countries. Online research projects and science fairs provide additional and equitable opportunities for students and teachers.

Beginning a student research and science fair program can be daunting. This presentation offers ideas and suggestions for starting small and local, utilising online options and then building connections towards an international network that offers your students unique and invaluable experiences.