Is it worthwhile to do low-level physics research projects? Yes.

I attended two Christmas concerts in the same day.

The first was my school's official Christmas Concert, including the concert band and string ensemble playing Christmas favorites.  The crowd of 300 students and parents applauded politely.

The second was Trans-Siberian Orchestra's The Ghosts of Christmas Eve tour - Christmas and classical music arranged in a rock-and-roll setting, complete with electric guitar riffs by long-haired men who might have been in the backseat of Wayne's car.  The crowd of 20,000 paying* fans screamed, shouted, applauded, and held their lit phones in the air.

* We paid for tickets, for parking, for ticketmaster's fees (how are they not an illegal monopoly, again?)... Somehow these fees weren't enough to hire anyone for basic traffic control around John Paul Jones Arena.  Two hours to make the 50 minute drive.  Oy.

Virtually all attendees at my school's concert had friends or relatives on the stage.  If they're honest, a large majority of the audience would acknowledge that their presence had far more to do with a social obligation to the performers than with a desire for entertainment.  And the vast majority of the on-stage performers won't play music professionally; in fact, most won't perform on their instrument ever again after high school.  

Though the high school concert compared to TSO as the Sun compares to a galactic cluster, even the most reluctant attendee watching their nephew hit most of the notes in "sleigh ride" could recognize the reasons that students performed their low-level concert.  Student musicians need an audience.  Music is part of a shared culture; the experience of rehearsing and performing music will enhance the performers' appreciation of professional performers.  The gulf in quality between students and highest-level professionals doesn't devalue the worth of the student performance.

You're nodding.  Of course - our JV baseball team plays, their families watch, then they pay elsewhere for the privilege of seeing real baseball at a major league game.  Rinse and repeat for any endeavor in the arts or athletics.

Why not academics?

I *do* have to convince people that student research in the context of an introductory physics class is worthwhile.  Near the end of even my lowest-level introductory class, students are presented with a problem that is a step beyond the level of problem they've been dealing with.  They're given time on the scale of weeks to investigate these problems experimentally and theoretically.  And then they're asked to present their results to an audience.  

Because I make this a Big Deal, and especially because I make this in lieu of an exam or written test, I get pushback.  Less and less pushback over time, because more people every year see the worth of these proto-research projects (and also because people give up complaining through sheer exhaustion - I'm not gonna end these projects).  But pushback nonetheless.  

Some of the pushback is reasonable.  All high school courses must find a niche within their school's ecosystem.  When facing grumbling about an assignment, it's not okay to just dismiss it all without due consideration.  Especially when the grumbling comes from respected colleagues or diligent students, it's important to listen in order to differentiate between "just kvetching" and legitimate beef.

One type of unreasonable pushback from colleagues comes from feeling threatened - physics students engage enthusiastically in their proto-research projects, and do them well.  Then when other classes give long cumulative written exams, students get tetchy - some of them like physics projects, but don't like cumulative math or history exams.  Nothing I can do there.  The soccer or football team shouldn't stop winning because their success might make other sports programs feel bad in comparison.  

A legitimate beef, though, comes from a fear of lost academic rigor.  It is absolutely true that the proliferation of project-based learning in the educational zeitgeist has led to all sorts of, shall we say, less than serious projects among the gems.  It's very hard for a non-science teacher to recognize the difference between "do cactuses like classical or rock music?" and "does the cart go faster when a projectile bounces off, or when it sticks?"  And if there's even one teacher in a department who gives out high marks for ridiculous "research" (or for parent-led research), then even the best low-level research project is gonna be a hard sell to colleagues.

But rigor doesn't mean Trans-Siberian Orchestra-level.  The school orchestra doesn't have to be professional level in order to make their concert worthwhile.  They just need to prepare carefully, and play to the best of their ability in front of an audience.  The existence of the audience is a significant motivating factor - participants know that friends and relatives are showing up to watch them.  Their audience doesn't expect to see Yo-Yo Ma, just a well-prepared best effort in which players don't have a flute up their nose.  

A 9th grade physics research project is not going to make a Nobel-level discovery, is not going to produce figures and mathematics publishable in Nature.  Yet the project can investigate physics one level beyond that of the year-long course.  The project can involve simple yet rigorous experimentation, simple yet rigorous explanation of theory.  And like the school Christmas concert, a low-level physics research project can be presented to an external audience who isn't expecting mind-blowing new science, but is happy to see a well-prepared best effort in which researchers don't try to swallow the motion detectors.

I'll be posting soon to request (paid) jurors to serve as our external audience for 9th grade physics research projects.  Even if, especially if, you or your colleagues are skeptical about the worth of low-level research, I encourage you to join us on May 21, 2023.  Don't expect to whoop and raise your lighted phone in response to a presentation!  But some presentations will be outstanding for the level of the course; and all will show a well-prepared best effort.  The mere existence of an audience, especially an audience tasked with giving feedback, will raise the quality of the experience for all participants.