KATYA Bandow is one of five students statewide to be selected for involvement in a Queensland University of Technology research project.

The SPAR-Ed program is offered to Year 12 students and is a way of involving bright young science students in university learning while they are still at school.

For Katya, who loves science, the program will give her a sense of what university learning is like.

Participation in the program can also lower the required OP score for university courses next year.

"I just wanted to dip my toes in but they haven't actually told us what the project is yet,” she said.

"The program is pretty unique because it is for just regional people and is a bit of an opportunity for people like me who live regionally.”

Katya is a keen science student at St Catherine's in Proserpine and loves chemistry because of how "tangible it is”.

"I love to be able to see what I am doing and what is actually going on,” she said.

"In biology at the moment I am testing the rate of reaction of an enzyme, I can actually see that happening before my eyes,.”

Stephanie McGoldrick also took part in the SPAR-Ed program in Brisbane over the holidays.

Katya's biology teacher, Tanya Pernase said it was a real opportunity and she was very proud of the students' involvement in the SPAR-Ed program.