Medical Research: Scientific Investigation & The Research Process

• Trace a medical or public-health claim to relevant scientific literature

• Write a focused question using the PICO framework

• Compare methods, data, budget, and ethical safeguards for a study

• Interpret evidence through a literature scavenger hunt and data challenge

• Develop and defend a proposal, abstract, and professional scientific poster

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

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

• Formulate a researchable health question using scientific literature

• Choose and justify ethical methods suited to a proposed study

• Communicate a research plan with clear evidence and reasoning

You’ll leave campus with your medical research proposal, abstract, scientific poster, and a continuation plan for Polygence mentorship, with clearer direction for further investigation.

A medical research claim depends on the question asked, the people or evidence studied, and the method used. Reading literature and specifying a PICO question help students examine those connections. A finding becomes easier to assess when the reasoning behind the study is clear.

Research planning also involves choices about data, ethics, and resources. Students practice explaining why an approach fits a question and how its limitations might affect a conclusion. Presenting a proposal invites other people to question those choices. These habits support further study in medicine, public health, and other fields where evidence needs careful interpretation.

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

This academy may interest you if you want to investigate a question in medicine or public health and understand how researchers develop evidence. You’ll examine literature, consider methods and ethics, and explain a research proposal to others. Students should be ready to revise a question and support a choice with reasons. The experience includes the on-campus academy and a subsequent Polygence program with 10 virtual mentor sessions, so participation extends beyond the time spent on campus.

Based on students surveyed in Summer Discovery’s 2026 program at the University of Michigan.

Programs on the University of Michigan campus give high-school students the experience of exploring an academic interest in Ann Arbor, a college town where campus and community life blend together. Tree-lined streets, downtown bookstores and cafés, the Nichols Arboretum, and trails near the Huron River create different ways to experience the setting beyond class.

Students learn alongside peers, navigate a large and active campus, and gain independence through everyday choices in a new environment. The experience helps students understand what university life can feel like while giving them space to deepen an interest without having every next step decided. For families, the program offers a meaningful combination of academic depth, community, personal growth, and clearer direction about what a student may want to study or pursue next.

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.