“Should I go to university, and what do researchers actually do?”: maybe that’s a question you recognize from your final school years. Pre-university courses at Leiden University are a great opportunity for high-schoolers to get a glimpse into academic life and discover whether they are curious to explore it further. And each year, we give pre-university courses in psychology that cover a variety of research topics in our lab. This year, students learned about empathy and friendships in autism, hearing diversity and (designing) inclusive environments - with many opportunities to get a bit of hands-on experience doing research like helping to design questionnaires, distributing surveys and designing intervention concepts.

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At the end, students pick their favorite topic, write a popular science article and showcase what they have learned at the final presentation market. And what a nice market it was!