“Treball de Recerca” are three words that we hear over and over again during the months leading up to the second year of Bachillerat, and none of us can deny that these three words have caused us some uncertainty at some point. But, what is really a Treball de Recerca?

Briefly, the Treball de Recerca consists of carrying out a research project on a specific topic chosen by each student. The project is generally divided into two parts: a theoretical part, which can be summarized as bibliographical documentation, and a more practical part, which involves both laboratory or field activities, depending on the subject each student specializes in. At the end of the work, the student must present a written report and defend it orally. Normally, this work is very nerve-wracking, as the grade counts a 10% of the final grade of Bachillerat. However, during the whole process of the work and until the presentation day, each student has a tutor assigned to them who guides them and tries to give the maximum possible support through advice.

In general, the execution of this research work at Claret is divided into 6 stages:

In the first stage, students must define the field on which they will focus their TR. To help do this, they will have the possibility to attend the oral presentations of the students in the second year of the Bachillerat. Thus, during the months of December and January, each student will give shape to the proposal of topics, in order to make a written proposal of the TR in the middle of January, when you have to choose the final topic of your research paper, as well as to give it a provisional title. Don’t get overwhelmed with this! When you finish the TR, you can change it and adapt it to the final content if appropriate.

Next, the aim of the second stage is for each student to create a project based on the main proposal that they have previously made. In this proposal, the student has to describe in a very simple way what their intention is for the TR. The months of March, April, May, June, June, July, August, September and October are the stipulated months for the implementation of the TR, which forms part of the 3rd stage.  

In the vicinity of the second week of October of the 2nd year of Bachillerat students must present a provisional report of the TR. The tutor of the TR carries out a preliminary correction of the report and, once the report has been reviewed, student and teacher meet with the intention of discussing the changes to be made. This provisional submission should include the title page, the abstract (a short text summarizing the content of the paper), the table of contents, the introduction to the paper, the body of the paper, the conclusions, the bibliography and the annexes. In short: the work must be practically finished.

Almost at the end, in mid-November, each student must hand in their finished work, which must be presented to the members of the examining board so that they can make a first assessment of the TR. Before handing in the work, it is very important to work on the formal aspects, as well as to carefully correct the spelling. The TR poster should also be presented at this last stage.

Finally, the work ends with each student making an oral presentation in which they present their work in a maximum of 10 minutes. This is the part that usually distresses students the most. Even so, you should think positively and think of the times when you have made other successful oral presentations. This is the time to show off your work!

Laia Vidal