A.D. Henderson & FAU High School

FAU Lab Schools

Tricia Meredith, Ph.D., is paving the way for young researchers and scientists to discover the next scientific breakthrough through a one-of-a-kind program at A.D. Henderson & FAU High School on the campus of Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton.

Dr. Meredith is a biologist and scientific researcher who joined FAU Lab Schools in 2015 to grow the K-12 schools’ research component. The program offers courses with individualized mentoring to develop research skills and provides access to labs throughout the county. The Owls Imaging Lab is open to KG-12th grade students year-round to provide access to state-of-the-art imaging equipment to ignite student curiosity and create solutions to local, state, and national problems.

“There’s nothing better than watching a high school student transform into a researcher,” says Dr. Meredith. “I have the privilege of spending years with these students during their research journeys and seeing their confidence and expertise grow each semester. It’s really fun to learn about their widely varying areas of research, from criminology to civil engineering to counselor education to computational neuroscience.”

The FAU Lab Schools Research Program offers a pathway for dual-enrolled high school students to engage in undergraduate research. The lab has cutting-edge equipment for students to work on high-level research projects, including cancer treatment research, vaccine development, prosthetic creation and more. Students also collaborate with scientists at Max Planck Florida Institute for Neuroscience on ground-breaking neuroscience research through the Jupiter campus of FAU High.

Researching some of the world’s most challenging problems at an early age, students share their findings in peer-reviewed journals. Students in the research program have published over 75 peer-reviewed research papers in journals such as the New England Journal of Medicine and the Journal of Neuroscience. Even more remarkable is the fact that other scientists around the world rely on this work and have cited FAU High School student research over 1,400 times since the program began.

“It’s remarkable when you recognize that these are high-school-aged researchers,” Dr. Meredith says. “The work they do is fascinating. FAU High is building the next generation of researchers.”

A.D. Henderson & FAU High School, 777 Glades Road, Boca Raton, 561-297-3970, fauhigh.fau.edu/student-research

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