Session 1: Science education research

1.4 The Junior Thesis as a way to reduce the gap between secondary and tertiary education
Anne-Lotte Masson, Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands

Abstract
Around fi fteen years ago, the Dutch secondary school curriculum saw the introduction of the junior thesis, a projectbased assignment to test whether students have acquired the appropriate skills for higher education, based on their chosen curriculum. This research aims to investigate how junior theses can promote student-scientist interaction and bridge the gap between secondary and tertiary education while focusing on research done on a junior thesis competition (Imagine...) as an example of best practice.