There are summer research experiences out there for high schoolers. I'll add links to any I find here if I find any, but I couldn't think of any off the top of my head, and I am completely overwhelmed with undergraduate summer researchers this year.
But I did have these ideas for how to do self directed astronomy useful stuff this summer, at an appropriate level (I think) for motivated and self-directed high schoolers/undergraduate - so I'm sharing them here in case it's useful to others:
- Learn python (any coding experience will be valuable)
- Learn python while learning astronomy (Sloan Digital Sky Surveys edition): https://github.com/brittlundgren/SDSS-EPO
- Watch this quality Youtube series on Astro: “Crash Course Astronomy”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rHUDWjR5gg (I used this in my Astro101 class this semester).
- A "research experience" (which I used in Astro101) - not python based (uses Google Sheets), and it's really more a data analysis and developing research questions experience. https://classroom.zooniverse.org/#/astro-101-with-galaxy-zoo/educators (you might want to start with the the Student instructions: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1kWmp_Om8GoS-u3s8h_23PGx1gr_ncM4ro4Hbbqf0sHY/edit) it’s framed as a group project, but you should be OK doing it alone.
- Do a Sloan Digital Sky Survey "Voyage" https://voyages.sdss.org/ - the Expeditions are longer, inquiry led experiences, which are supposed to be self guided.
