Medical Research: Scientific Investigation & The Research Process

• Evaluate health claims through a literature scavenger hunt

• Use PICO to frame a focused medical research question

• Interpret evidence through a research data challenge

• Compare study methods, budgets and ethical safeguards

• Present your proposal, abstract and scientific poster

• Continue the project through 10 one-to-one virtual Polygence mentor sessions

By the end of the course, students will be able to:

• Formulate a focused health research question using scientific evidence

• Justify study methods and ethical choices appropriate to a proposed investigation

• Communicate a research plan through a proposal, abstract, poster and presentation

You’ll leave the campus program with your health research proposal, abstract and scientific poster, then develop the project further through personalized Polygence mentorship and a tangible final output.

A health claim needs evidence that fits the question. Considering who was studied, what was measured and how results were interpreted helps students decide what a finding can support. Framing their own question makes those choices visible.

Planning a study also involves responsibility. Ethics, resources and community participation influence what researchers can investigate and how. Explaining those decisions in a proposal develops careful reasoning and communication. Continuing with a mentor gives students time to revisit a question and develop the work further, habits that support further exploration of medicine, public health and other research fields.

For students who have completed 9th, 10th, 11th or 12th grade.

If a health question sends you looking for the evidence, this academy gives you a structured way to pursue it. Expect scientific reading, research planning, discussion and feedback on a proposal. You will present your reasoning and consider questions from others. The experience continues after the campus program through ten one-to-one virtual mentor sessions with Polygence, so students should plan for an ongoing research commitment. The mentorship helps each student develop a tangible output suited to the project.

Based on students surveyed in Summer Discovery’s 2026 UC Berkeley program.

UC Berkeley gives high-school students the opportunity to pursue serious academic exploration in a campus environment shaped by scientific inquiry, new ideas, and an active connection to the wider Bay Area. The Berkeley Hills, distinctive architecture, and green spaces make the experience feel different from an ordinary school routine.

Students learn alongside peers, become more independent, and experience the pace and possibility of university life. The Bay Area context adds exposure to a region influenced by research, technology, entrepreneurship, culture, and public debate. For families, the value is not campus prestige alone. It is the combination of academic depth, community, and a student gaining clearer insight into the subjects, environments, and possible directions that genuinely motivate them.

Medical and public-health research can investigate a treatment, a pattern in a population, or a question about how care is delivered. Each study needs methods suited to its purpose and ethical decisions about how evidence is gathered. A proposal helps make those decisions clear before the investigation begins.

Students encounter that process through literature, a focused question, and a research plan, then continue through Polygence mentorship. The project offers a way to explore which health questions hold their attention and how a final format can communicate the work. Further study begins with understanding what the evidence can and cannot support.