Sure, it easily takes 6 months to learn the nuances of molecular dynamics. But high school students have tons of free time. Even with cross-country, track practice, and marching band, in high school I still had at least 4 hours of free time a day, 8-12 hours on the weekends, and all four summers in high school included three months of completely empty days. Heck, I had more time back then for research than I do now.