A free online research workshop for high school students, led by university mentors. Four weeks, twenty lessons, no experience required. You come in curious and leave with a research proposal of your own, proficient enough to lead or join real projects.
Cost
Free
Format
Online, self-paced
Length
4 weeks, 20 lessons
Next cohort
November 9
Registration is closed for now.
Next cohort starts November 9
Registration reopens before then. Leave your email and you hear the moment it does, before it is announced anywhere else.
Online, wherever you are.
Research 101 is an online course, and students in Canada and around the world can join, including from the US. The next cohort is fully self-paced: interactive lessons with short videos, and no live sessions, so there is nothing to attend and no camera to turn on. Work through it whenever your school week allows.
Summer 2026, by the numbers
The summer cohort ran August 3 to August 28. Here is what it actually looked like.
students registered, from Canada and beyond
371
students live in the room each morning
30 to 40
full research proposals handed in for written feedback
58
researchers at Speaker Day, including a Nobel laureate
5
Registration and attendance figures as reported by AuroraToday. More coverage on our press page. Speaker Day included Arthur B. McDonald, who shared the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physics for showing that neutrinos have mass.
Summer 2026 · Research proposal awards
The best research proposals of the summer
58 students handed in a full research proposal at the end of Research 101. Every one was read and graded with written feedback. These three stood above the rest.
First place
Kazi Izaan
Cognitive neuroscience
“EEG Power as a Trial-Level Predictor of Mental Imagery Vividness Across Visual and Auditory Modalities”
The question
When you imagine a picture or a sound, does the brain rhythm tied to that sense (alpha waves at the back of the head for images, theta waves over the centre for sounds) predict how vivid that one image or sound felt?
The approach
A new analysis of a public EEG dataset of 20 adults who imagined sights and sounds and rated each one for vividness. The dataset held both measurements for every trial, but no one had tested them against each other. Kazi planned to measure band power for each trial against a pre-trial baseline, fit an ordinal mixed-effects model, check it with a linear model, and use the beta band as a control that should show no effect.
Why it matters
Researchers studying PTSD flashbacks and intrusive imagery rely almost entirely on people describing their own inner experience. A brain signal that tracks vividness would give them an objective measure to sit alongside self-report.
“Honestly, this reads like a university research proposal.”
Second place
Soliana Girma
Planetary science
“Testing Whether Evaporation and Infiltration Could Explain the Disappearance of Titan's Phantom Lakes”
The question
Cassini watched lakes near the north pole of Titan, Saturn's largest moon, vanish: one within six months, two over about seven years. Could evaporation, or liquid seeping into the ground, have removed enough of them fast enough to explain it?
The approach
Soliana brought together five published studies of Titan, from Cassini observations to laboratory experiments on methane and ethane under Titan-like cold and pressure. She used the gaps between Cassini's observations as the maximum time available, worked out the depth loss rate each lake would have needed, and set it against published evaporation and infiltration rates, checking every unit conversion along the way.
Why it matters
Instead of saying evaporation or infiltration is possible, her approach calculates whether each could actually have done it, which tells us how liquid moves between Titan's surface, its atmosphere and the ground beneath it.
“You turn the open question into something you can actually calculate.”
Third place
Subhani Jayaprabhu
Psychology
“The Effects of Pop Music, Rainfall Sounds, and Silence on an Adolescent's Cognitive Performance”
The question
Do teenagers aged 15 to 16 do better on a timed maths task with pop music, rain sounds, or silence in the background, and does it depend on whether they usually study with music?
The approach
Every participant worked through all three sound conditions, with three groups taking them in a different order so that fatigue and rising difficulty could not favour any one of them. The songs were drawn at random from a trending chart, the maths was Boolean logic nobody had been taught, and screening questions on sleep, food and medication came before anyone started. Subhani then ran it with 15 students.
Why it matters
Almost every teenager studies with something playing. Knowing whether it helps or hurts, and for whom, is useful to students, teachers and parents alike.
“Your method is the strongest in the cohort.”
The four weeks
One skill a week, five short interactive lessons each, and a problem set at the end of every week. Everything you write lands in a workbook that becomes your final research proposal.
Week 1
Learning to Read Research
Papers are written for people who already read papers. This week is the decoder ring.
What research actually is.The shape underneath every field
Anatomy of a paper.Five sections, and the order to read them in
Good evidence, weak evidence.Sample size, confounding, and what correlation will not tell you
Workshop: explain it back.Plain language is the real comprehension test
Problem Set 1: Take a paper excerpt apart: claim, evidence, assumption, limitation.
Week 2
Framing a Real Question
Most projects fail at the question, not the experiment. You will leave with one you can defend.
From curiosity to question.Narrowing without losing the point
The literature check.Scholar, PubMed, arXiv, and better keywords
Types of questions.Descriptive, correlational, causal, exploratory
Feasibility.Time, ethics, access, scope
Workshop: build your question.Six steps, one question, saved to your workbook
Problem Set 2: Diagnose four research questions, then defend your own.
Week 3
How Projects Actually Get Built
Methods, data, ethics, and the timeline nobody warns you about.
Methodology 101.Six ways to actually collect an answer
Data basics.Variables, measurement, and what counts as data
Ethics and constraints.Consent, privacy, risk, and review boards
Project timelines.Nine phases, and the two that always run long
Inside a real project.How researchers get stuck, and how they get moving again
Problem Set 3: Choose methods for three scenarios and find the ethical problem in a fourth.
Week 4
Getting Project-Ready
Write the proposal, learn to pitch it, and learn how to work with a mentor.
Writing a research proposal.Seven sections that have to agree with each other
Communicating research.Thirty seconds, five minutes, one abstract
Working with a mentor.Preparation, feedback, and what to do when you are stuck
Finalise your proposal.Your own work, pulled forward and sharpened
Capstone talk.Two to three minutes, recorded and reviewed
Problem Set 4: Review a weak proposal, then write the abstract for your own.
Certificate of Participation
Awarded for completing at least one lesson in each of the four weeks and submitting a full research proposal. Every certificate carries a public link that proves it is genuine.
Certificate of Mastery
Awarded for completing all twenty lessons, all four problem sets, and a full research proposal. Every certificate carries a public link that proves it is genuine.
What proficient actually means
Research 101 is not a lecture series. It is built to change what you can do. Think of it as your quest log: by the last session, every one of these is ticked off.
Read a research paper without drowning in it.
Frame a question that is actually worth asking.
Understand how real projects get planned and built.
Learn from university mentors and working researchers.
Leave ready to lead or join a real research project.
Who it is for
High school students who want research experience and do not know where to start, in Canada or anywhere else in the world. It runs fully online, so where you live is not a barrier. No lab access, no connections, and no prior experience needed. There is no application either: places are first come, first served.
Registration is closed for now. The next cohort starts November 9, and registration reopens before then. Leave your email on this page and you hear the moment it opens, before it is announced anywhere else.
Is Research 101 really free?
Yes. There is no registration fee, no cost during the program, and no paid tier behind the free one. The lessons, the videos, the problem sets, the written feedback on your proposal and the certificate are all free.
Are there live sessions? Do I need my camera on?
No. It is fully asynchronous: self-paced online lessons with short videos. There are no live sessions to attend and no camera to turn on, so you can work through it whenever suits you, from any time zone.
Is it competitive? How do I get a place?
There is no application. Places are first come, first served, so register as soon as registration opens. You do not need grades, a reference, or any research experience.
How much time does it take?
The twenty lessons add up to about 10.5 hours including the videos, or roughly 2.5 hours a week over four weeks, plus a short problem set each week and your final proposal. Because it is self-paced, you can go faster or slower to fit around school.
Who is Research 101 for?
High school students who want research experience and do not know where to start, in Canada or anywhere else. It runs online, so where you live is not a barrier. You do not need lab access, connections, or any prior research experience.
What will I actually learn?
Four weeks, one skill each: learning to read research, framing a real question, how projects actually get built, getting project-ready. Twenty interactive lessons with short videos from researchers and educators, a problem set each week, and a final research proposal you build from your own work. Your final research proposal gets written feedback from us, so you know what is strong and what to fix before you take it further.
Do I get a certificate?
Yes, in two tiers. Certificates are generated automatically the moment you meet the requirements, each with a public verification link. The Certificate of Participation is awarded for completing at least one lesson in each of the four weeks and submitting a full research proposal. The Certificate of Mastery is awarded for completing all twenty lessons, all four problem sets, and a full research proposal.
Is it online? Can I join from outside Canada?
Yes. It is fully online and self-paced, and students outside Canada, including the US, are welcome. With no live sessions, time zones do not matter.
Who teaches it?
The course was built by university mentors who work in the fields they teach. Students have also had time with researchers well beyond the program: Arthur B. McDonald, who won the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physics, gave this summer's cohort a live talk at Speaker Day.
What comes after Research 101?
The Symposium: the biggest student research symposium in Canada, in person in downtown toronto, Winter 2027. The proposal you finish in week four is the start of a project worth presenting there.
The network behind the program
Research 101 was built by university mentors, not staff reading from a deck. Beyond them sits a wider network: researchers at these institutions have advised us, sat down for an interview, or mentored students directly, and several of those conversations are still going.
Advice, interviews, and mentorship from
And elsewhere in the network
Backgrounds in the group include work at
Next cohort: November 9.
Registration reopens before then. The notify list hears first.
