EIC Science with High School Students

The high energy nuclear physics community in the US has only begun to scratch the surface

of our understanding of the smallest building blocks of nature all around us. The Electron-Ion

Collider at Brookhaven National Laboratory, New York, has been selected as a premiere upcoming

facility to study the intricate structure of the nucleus and explore the physics of fundamental

particles by constructing the Electron Ion Collider (EIC). The success of EIC in the next decade

of American leadership in nuclear research critically depends on the availability of a well educated,

computationally robust and diverse scientific workforce. It is incumbent on us to foster a continuous

supply of scientific graduates interested in fundamental research. With that goal in mind, we present

a workshop aimed at high school students on the exciting physics of the EIC. We have run this program

in the metro Nashville area at Vanderbilt University. This is a 4 day workshop with the students

spending 4 hours per day. Our goal in to introduce high school students to the field of high energy

nuclear physics through hands on research experience. We collect both quantitative and qualitative

feedback from the students and during this talk, I will discuss both their learning and experience upon

taking this workshop. This program is fully public and accessible to anyone.