Student Partnerships for Advanced Research and Knowledge (SPARK)

The Student Partnerships for Advanced Research and Knowledge (SPARK) program provides an opportunity for all high school students and their science educators to become visiting researchers to Brookhaven National Laboratory’s scientific facilities— just like the thousands of scientific researchers use them for their research each year.

Participants in this year-round program will conduct hypothesis-driven research through collaborations with scientific experts at Brookhaven Lab. This experience enables students to actively contribute to the scientific community, obtain real research experience, and motivate students to consider careers in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields. Educators will have the opportunity to develop long-term research partnerships with Lab scientists and may be eligible to receive continuing education credit. Additionally, educators can expand their network of local educators and STEM professionals while enriching their curriculum content through exposure to the Department of Energy’s (DOE) multidisciplinary science research and the capabilities of the National Laboratory complex.

Program Overview

The SPARK program starts with educator training where participants will gain an understanding of:

• Scientific capabilities of the user facilities
• Scientific data analysis
• Proposal writing

Should participants decide they want to perform research at one of Brookhaven Lab’s facilities as part of this program, trained educators can recruit student team(s) from their school to develop a research project that aligns with the capabilities of the user facility.  The mentor and students must submit a research plan outlining the experiment they would like to conduct in order to be considered for access to one of the Lab’s facilities.

As a user of the Brookhaven Lab facilities, participants will be asked to share their findings in the annual NSLS-II & CFN Users’ Meeting as well as in educational and peer-reviewed scientific journals.  

SPARK Program Eligibility

• High school research and science teachers
• High school students, no younger than 15 years old
• Participants must be U.S. citizens or legal permanent residents (Green Card holders)

Participating User Facilities

• The National Synchrotron Light Source II (NSLS-II)
• The Center for Functional Nanomaterials (CFN)

Educator Training

Please check back for summer SPARK training opportunities for educators!