Argonne Exemplary Student Research Program

# Argonne Exemplary Student Research Program The Exemplary Student Research Program (ESRP) lets high school teams conduct a genuine, school-year-long research project at Argonne National Laboratory's world-class user facilities - including the Advanced Photon Source (APS), the Center for Nanoscale Materials (CNM), and the ATLAS accelerator. Teams of 4-8 students, led by a science teacher and paired with Argonne scientist mentors, take a research question from proposal to data collection on a working beamline to a final public presentation. ## What You'll Do - Form a school team with a teacher who applies in spring; teachers attend an August workshop and teams submit a research proposal by late October - Develop your experiment with mentorship from Argonne scientists during the school year - Visit Argonne to collect data at facilities like the APS synchrotron, then analyze results back at school - Return to Argonne to present your team's completed research ## Who Should Apply Students at Chicagoland-area high schools whose science teacher is willing to lead a team - ask a teacher in any STEM discipline to apply. Students must be 16 or older by January of the school year to do hands-on work at the lab (younger students may observe). Argonne covers transportation, food, and all research materials, so the program costs schools and students nothing. ## Outcomes ESRP students are among very few high schoolers anywhere who run experiments at a national-laboratory synchrotron. Teams finish with a completed research project, experience with professional instrumentation, and working relationships with national lab scientists.