Track 5: Recommended Student Timeline

Month 1
Topic Discovery & Research Foundations

  • Research Area Exploration:
    Students meet with Brightspark founders and assigned research mentors to explore potential research fields based on personal interests and academic strengths.

  • Topic Selection:
    Through guided brainstorming sessions, students finalize a specific, researchable topic within their chosen field.

  • Research Skill Foundations:
    Students receive training in basic research methods, academic writing conventions, citation management, and credible source evaluation.

  • Literature Review:
    Students begin building a literature review — reading and summarizing key papers relevant to their research question.

Month 2-7
Learning & Research Design
  • Mentor Classes: Start regular sessions with mentors focusing on technical concepts relevant to the student’s interests.
  • Learning: Students are assigned a substantial collection of professional and expert-level materials to build deep subject-matter knowledge and develop a strong academic foundation in their research topic.

  • Formal Research Proposal Drafting:
    Students write a structured research proposal, including introduction, objectives, methodology, and expected outcomes.

  • Mentor Approval and Feedback:
    Mentors review and refine proposals to ensure academic rigor and viability.

  • Data Collection and Initial Study with Mentor:
    Depending on field, students either:

    • Begin primary data collection (surveys, experiments, interviews), or

    • Perform deeper secondary research (quantitative/qualitative analysis of published datasets or case studies).

Month 8-9
Research Execution & Data Analysis

• Project Launch:
Students begin executing the research plan — conducting experiments, running surveys, performing case analyses, or computational modeling depending on the field.

• Data Collection and Management:
Students gather, organize, and clean data where applicable. Research mentors provide guidance on reliability, validity, and ethics.

• Preliminary Findings & Analysis:
Students conduct statistical or qualitative analysis and draw initial insights, meeting regularly for feedback on emerging results.

Month 10
Paper Writing, Final Review, and Submission

• Academic Paper Drafting:
Students write full academic papers structured with:

  • Title

  • Abstract

  • Introduction

  • Methods

  • Results

  • Discussion

  • References

• Mentor Feedback Rounds:
Multiple feedback rounds with mentors and Brightspark founders on clarity, academic rigor, originality, and publication readiness.

• Final Proofreading & Formatting:
Students finalize formatting to fit academic journal guidelines.

• Submission Strategy:
Students receive strategic advice on selecting appropriate academic journals, youth research competitions, or academic conferences to submit to.

• Portfolio Enhancement:
Students add the final paper (submitted or accepted) to their Brightspark academic portfolio, significantly strengthening their university applications.