This article provides a list of 20 tips for high school students who are interested in taking part in the research process. Its creation was a collaborative effort between research project participants (students, teachers, scientists), and thus it departs structurally from other scientific articles.
The 20 tips come from the participants’ experiences in a research collaboration between students and researchers. As such, they can inform similar projects but should not be taken as guidelines on how to establish such collaborations.
The research question for this collaboration was defined and developed solely by the students, with researchers joining the project later through the guidance of a facilitator and a teacher. This rather radical approach to citizen science involved collaborations, provided skills, empowered participants and enhanced the social relevance of science while allowing interactions that might have never happened otherwise.