Moving Beyond “Just Another High School Research Project:” Designing and Implementing Coastal Community Research Projects that Meet Rigorous Professional Review Standards.

This project evolved out of an environmental education program, the Cohasset High School Summer Institute, partially supported by the Cohasset Education Foundation. The Summer Institute is focused on certain timely concerns of the local community; it engages students in a program involving the stewardship of the marine environment. MIT Sea Grant’s contribution is designed to bring more scientific discipline to the program by instilling in the teachers and the students the need for well-structured data collection and reporting. The participating students are expected to prepare reports along established scientific guidelines.