School for Scientific Thought: Saturday sessions that bring high school and STEM graduate students together

The School for Scientific Thought (http://csep.cnsi.ucsb.edu/k12/sst) is a Saturday morning program that exposes high school students to current research in STEM fields, through 5-week miniclasses that are conceived, developed and taught by graduate students. Now in its second year of sponsorship by UCSB's California Nanosystems Institute, this NSF-supported program provides graduate students with a creative opportunity to communicate their own favorite science to a young audience. The experience solidifies the graduate student's own knowledge while developing expository skills during a limited time commitment that allows them to also progress in their research objectives. High school students make contact with positive scientist role models while learning about exciting topics that are beyond the high school curriculum. SST courses have ranged from ``Surfing the Waves of Light and Matter'' to ``Nanotechnology: Using the Very Small to Solve the World's Problems''. The selection of graduate student instructors and recruitment of high school students will be discussed. SST is an outgrowth of the NSF GK-12 program ``Let's Explore Applied Physical Science'' (LEAPS).