Shaping the Future of Science

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  6th-12th Graders: JSTI Applications are now open!

  JSTI is an all-expenses-paid residential STEM research experience in Maryland or New Mexico. Join us to participate in a hands-on research project mentored by scientists while living on campus at a university! You will gain research experience and problem solving skills while learning about STEM careers and meeting new people.

  The deadline for this research experience is March 31. Visit the JSTI East website or JSTI West website for more info!

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  Calling all students: Crazy Contraptions Student Competition

  Have you ever been lying in bed, wishing you could turn off the light from across the room? Let’s hear how you’d do it! The Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE) wants to see your idea for a crazy contraption that completes a simple task in a wacky way! To enter this competition, you will design your own Rube Goldberg machine to get the job done. Below you will find grade specific details on what your project should include! TWELVE prizes will be awarded with three winners per grade band—three for K-2^nd, three for 3^rd-5^th, three for 6^th-8^th and three for 9^th-12^th.

  The deadline for this contest is March 31. Visit the STEM Competitions for K-12 Students page for more info!

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  K-12 Educators: Discovering Hidden Figures

  This March we would love to celebrate the lesser-known discoverers and trailblazers of the STEM fields. There are many remarkable experts who deserve recognition for their work yet are not widely included in K-12 education. Movies such as Hidden Figures or children’s books about Temple Grandin and Ray Montague demonstrate this. The Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE) wants to see how you incorporate largely unknown experts in the STEM fields and their discoveries into your lesson plans. Teachers of any grade level or subject are invited to submit a STEM lesson plan that includes obscure contributors to a STEM field. THREE teachers who submit lesson plans will be selected to receive the prizes listed below!

  The deadline for this contest is March 31. Visit the STEM Competitions for K-12 Educators page for more info!

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  Feature Story

  Applications are open for CIA Mission Possible Operation Advance Technology

  Applications are now being accepted for CIA Mission Possible Operation Advance Technology. Five public school or private school K-8 educators from across the United States will win a $60,000 prize package that includes 30 laptops, a laptop charging cart, and a package of coding or 3-D printing equipment.

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  Undergrads: Solarpunk Futures: Illustrating the Future of Solar

  The Solar Energy Technology Office and ORISE are hosting a research-based challenge for undergraduate students to create a Solarpunk art piece that communicates the potential of the technology the office is funding. Thorough submissions will include research on the office’s funding that will inform the piece of art created, a focus on communicating the potential of SETO’s research, and a short supporting document explaining the concept behind the piece. Your Solarpunk art piece could win you a $5,000 scholarship!

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  Research Spotlight

  Forensics fellow develops novel method to detect food contamination

  Nicole Fernández-Tejero has been learning to fine-tune food contamination methods to protect the public through her fellowship with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS), Summer Research Team Program for Minority Serving Institutions (SRT MSI). 

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  ORISE Featurecast: ORISE Future of Science Award Winner: Geneva Gray

  Geneva Gray, doctoral candidate in Atmospheric Sciences at North Carolina State University and a current ORISE participant at the Environmental Protection Agency, was named the ORISE Future of Science Graduate Student and Post-Master's Award winner in 2022. ORISE Featurecast host Michael Holtz talked with Gray about her award, her career, mentorship and what drove her interest in science.

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