This past summer, MacArthur Science Research students, Catherine Purirojejananon (12th grade), Logan Rodriguez (11th grade), and Jiamin Rao (10th grade) participated in programs for high school students at Brookhaven National Laboratory.

Catherine Purirojejananon participated in the High School Research Program. Over the six-week program, she worked alongside a beamline scientist and gained hands-on experience with advanced instrumentation at the National Synchrotron Light Source (NSLS-II). Catherine said, "It was really an eye-opening experience and one of the most rewarding summers I've had. Beyond making samples and running trial experiments, I was able to surround myself with highly accomplished people and form a close circle of friends. I'm truly thankful to have spent my summer at such a prestigious lab while still enjoying things like the talent show, tricycle rides, and ping pong matches."

Logan took part in the National Lab Bridge to Research Program, and he worked on a research project regarding photon emission from various types of water and networked with real researchers from the lab through various social events and guest speakers who presented research on nuclear chemistry, machine learning, and their BNL experience. With an instructor's aid, he improved his python and excel skills which helped to create his presentation to conclude the week. This week helped Logan to learn about other fields of stem, reinforce his knowledge of topics from last year's stem prep program, and prepared him for next year's High School Research Program.

Jiamin participated in the STEM Prep program, along with many other students, for a duration of 3 weeks. Their first week was spent learning about environmental sciences, specifically, aerosols, their role in the creation of clouds, and basic coding in Python which enabled them to utilize sensors and gather data on temperature, pressure and light intensity. Their next week was spent on biochemistry where they completed hands-on labs including growing bacteria, protein extraction, and titration. Their final week was spent learning about classical physics and implementing code. They also were able to tour the National Weather Service, NSLS-II and the Tandem Van de Graaf. To conclude the program, they participated in a poster session where Jiamin spoke about her research on energy.