In March, over 100 high school juniors and seniors from Idaho Falls and Bonneville County visited the Center for Advanced Energy Studies (CAES) to participate in the first Days @ CAES event. The students explored the labs during tours led by researchers and technicians and networked with Idaho university and community college recruiters.
“It was truly an honor to show potential researchers and lab technicians of tomorrow some of the possibilities offered at CAES through the INL and Idaho university collaboration,” stated Project Coordinator Levander Davis.
When Davis approached the local school districts with the idea of bringing high school students to explore the labs at CAES, the administration was very receptive and supportive. Especially when the goal was to share CAES capabilities with students who indicated they had interest in science and/or technical fields but were undecided on post-graduation plans. “Because of the importance STEM education plays in the future workforce of our area, allowing students to explore laboratories doing real research opens us to discussions with them on their interests and career aspirations.”
Because of the state-academic collaboration at CAES, the facility offers unique open access which allowed the students to go right inside the labs and talk with researchers who are working on solving some of the world’s most crucial energy challenges. They also learned about internship programs with INL and Idaho’s universities as many of the projects happening at CAES have ties to degrees offered at Idaho’s universities and colleges. “I was excited to hear a student from Compass High School comment on how exciting it was for them to discover you can work in the labs at CAES as an undergraduate,” said Davis.
Davis is already collaborating with school districts to expand and improve the first-time event. “I’m hoping we can open the event up to additional students from around southeast Idaho,” he stated. “It would be amazing to make Days @ CAES a bi-annual event for high schoolers.”
