Opportunities From: Berkeley Lab

Volunteer: Be a Presenter for Reverse Science Fair

Remember grade school science fairs? Well, the Lab is taking that format and turning it on its head with volunteer researchers and STEM professionals presenting their work for evaluation by a team of middle school judges. 

On the following dates, in coordination with Berkeley Lab's Early Career ERG, K-12 Programs, and the Community Resources for Science organization, we are looking for STEM and STEM-adjacent professionals to visit Middle Schools and present their 'science projects' for 8th grade students to view and judge. 



More Details: 

This is an in-person event at Berkeley and Oakland Middle Schools, We will have 2, 3 hours sessions. Volunteers are welcome to join ONE of these sessions as the times overlap.  Students will talk to 4 different presenters and take notes to help them judge the best 'science fair project'.  Volunteers will need to travel to and from the middle school. Contact Elina D Rios at erios@lbl.gov if you need help with transportation or have any other questions. Contact Elina D Rios at erios@lbl.gov for a copy of a recording of the previous info sessions. Contact Corbin Shatto at cshatto@lbl.gov for any questions about the event


Next opportunity:

November 17 & 18th - Longfellow Middle School (Berkeley)

January 28th - Claremont Middle School (Oakland)

February 23rd & 24th - Martin Luther King Middle School (Berkeley)

March 23rd - Frick Middle School (Oakland)

April 13th - Willard Middle School (Berkeley)

More schools to be added soon

Berkeley Lab Program: Berkeley Lab K-12 STEM Programs

Remember grade school science fairs? Well, the Lab is taking that format and turning it on its head with volunteer researchers and STEM professionals presenting their work for evaluation by a team of middle school judges. 

On the following dates, in coordination with Berkeley Lab's Early Career ERG, K-12 Programs, and the Community Resources for Science organization, we are looking for STEM and STEM-adjacent professionals to visit Middle Schools and present their 'science projects' for 8th grade students to view and judge. 



More Details: 

This is an in-person event at Berkeley and Oakland Middle Schools, We will have 2, 3 hours sessions. Volunteers are welcome to join ONE of these sessions as the times overlap.  Students will talk to 4 different presenters and take notes to help them judge the best 'science fair project'.  Volunteers will need to travel to and from the middle school. Contact Elina D Rios at erios@lbl.gov if you need help with transportation or have any other questions. Contact Elina D Rios at erios@lbl.gov for a copy of a recording of the previous info sessions. Contact Corbin Shatto at cshatto@lbl.gov for any questions about the event


Next opportunity:

November 17 & 18th - Longfellow Middle School (Berkeley)

January 28th - Claremont Middle School (Oakland)

February 23rd & 24th - Martin Luther King Middle School (Berkeley)

March 23rd - Frick Middle School (Oakland)

April 13th - Willard Middle School (Berkeley)

More schools to be added soon

Berkeley Lab Program: Berkeley Lab K-12 STEM Programs

Opportunity Type: Volunteer

Date: Multiple Shifts Available

Zip Code: 94701

Allow Groups: No

Volunteer: Help troubleshoot circuit design for Berkeley Lab Director's Apprenticeship Program 2026

The Berkeley Lab Director’s Apprenticeship Program: Interdisciplinary Pathways to Machine Learning and Data Science (BLDAP:IPMLDS) is a project-based high school STEM (Science Technology Engineering Mathematics) program designed to help participants develop 21st century skills, learn about Berkeley Lab’s research activities, receive college and career guidance, and develop a STEM network in a real-life work environment. The program seeks to remove barriers, such as a lack of access to professional networks and work-based opportunities, by providing strong connections to the scientific community at Berkeley Lab.
 
We are seeking TAs for our intro to electronics workshops. TAs will work with small groups of students, answering their questions and providing troubleshooting tips as they assemble simple circuits using a circuit design trainer and Arduino. 
Various dates are available from June 18th to July 9th. The program will be on site, and we ask volunteers to also join us in-person. 
All volunteers participating in K-12 programs must complete an online working with minors course (~90 minutes), sign and submit a CANRA form, and pass a background check. 
For any questions please contact K-12 Lead Education Facilitator Corbin Shatto (cshatto@lbl.gov)

Berkeley Lab Program: Berkeley Lab K-12 STEM Programs

The Berkeley Lab Director’s Apprenticeship Program: Interdisciplinary Pathways to Machine Learning and Data Science (BLDAP:IPMLDS) is a project-based high school STEM (Science Technology Engineering Mathematics) program designed to help participants develop 21st century skills, learn about Berkeley Lab’s research activities, receive college and career guidance, and develop a STEM network in a real-life work environment. The program seeks to remove barriers, such as a lack of access to professional networks and work-based opportunities, by providing strong connections to the scientific community at Berkeley Lab.
 
We are seeking TAs for our intro to electronics workshops. TAs will work with small groups of students, answering their questions and providing troubleshooting tips as they assemble simple circuits using a circuit design trainer and Arduino. 
Various dates are available from June 18th to July 9th. The program will be on site, and we ask volunteers to also join us in-person. 
All volunteers participating in K-12 programs must complete an online working with minors course (~90 minutes), sign and submit a CANRA form, and pass a background check. 
For any questions please contact K-12 Lead Education Facilitator Corbin Shatto (cshatto@lbl.gov)

Berkeley Lab Program: Berkeley Lab K-12 STEM Programs

Opportunity Type: Volunteer

Date: Jun 18, 2026 through Jul 9, 2026

Allow Groups: Yes

Volunteer: Become an intro to Python/data science TA for Berkeley Lab Director's Apprenticeship Program 2026

The Berkeley Lab Director’s Apprenticeship Program: Interdisciplinary Pathways to Machine Learning and Data Science (BLDAP:IPMLDS) is a project-based high school STEM (Science Technology Engineering Mathematics) program designed to help participants develop 21st century skills, learn about Berkeley Lab’s research activities, receive college and career guidance, and develop a STEM network in a real-life work environment. The program seeks to remove barriers, such as a lack of access to professional networks and work-based opportunities, by providing strong connections to the scientific community at Berkeley Lab.
  
Our cohort of around 20 students will complete an intro to Python/data science/machine learning course as part of the program. The students will be entering the program with little to no experience coding. The curriculum will cover the following topics: data types, variables, lists, conditionals, loops, numpy arrays, pandas (input/output of dataframes, indexing, slicing, manipulating columns, statistics, various functions for exploratory data analysis), and data visualization with matplotlib. Towards the end of the program, students will apply their knowledge on data sets using data from various Berkeley Lab research projects. Students will also work on machine learning applications.  
We are seeking TAs for our intro to Python/data science course. TAs will work with small groups of students, answering their questions and providing guidance as they work through coding exercises using Jupyter notebooks. TAs will also be asked to grade and provide feedback for weekly challenge notebooks collected from students.  
Various dates are available from June 17th to July 15th. A separate sign-up sheet with specific dates and times will be shared with volunteers, and volunteers can sign up for any dates/times that work best for them. The program will be on site, and we ask volunteers to also join us in-person.  
All volunteers participating in K-12 programs must complete an online working with minors course (~90 minutes), sign and submit a CANRA form, and pass a background check.  
For any questions, please contact A-LIFT Lead Education Facilitator, Corbin Shatto (cshatto@lbl.gov).

Berkeley Lab Program: Berkeley Lab K-12 STEM Programs

The Berkeley Lab Director’s Apprenticeship Program: Interdisciplinary Pathways to Machine Learning and Data Science (BLDAP:IPMLDS) is a project-based high school STEM (Science Technology Engineering Mathematics) program designed to help participants develop 21st century skills, learn about Berkeley Lab’s research activities, receive college and career guidance, and develop a STEM network in a real-life work environment. The program seeks to remove barriers, such as a lack of access to professional networks and work-based opportunities, by providing strong connections to the scientific community at Berkeley Lab.
  
Our cohort of around 20 students will complete an intro to Python/data science/machine learning course as part of the program. The students will be entering the program with little to no experience coding. The curriculum will cover the following topics: data types, variables, lists, conditionals, loops, numpy arrays, pandas (input/output of dataframes, indexing, slicing, manipulating columns, statistics, various functions for exploratory data analysis), and data visualization with matplotlib. Towards the end of the program, students will apply their knowledge on data sets using data from various Berkeley Lab research projects. Students will also work on machine learning applications.  
We are seeking TAs for our intro to Python/data science course. TAs will work with small groups of students, answering their questions and providing guidance as they work through coding exercises using Jupyter notebooks. TAs will also be asked to grade and provide feedback for weekly challenge notebooks collected from students.  
Various dates are available from June 17th to July 15th. A separate sign-up sheet with specific dates and times will be shared with volunteers, and volunteers can sign up for any dates/times that work best for them. The program will be on site, and we ask volunteers to also join us in-person.  
All volunteers participating in K-12 programs must complete an online working with minors course (~90 minutes), sign and submit a CANRA form, and pass a background check.  
For any questions, please contact A-LIFT Lead Education Facilitator, Corbin Shatto (cshatto@lbl.gov).

Berkeley Lab Program: Berkeley Lab K-12 STEM Programs

Opportunity Type: Volunteer

Date: Runs Until Jul 16, 2026

Allow Groups: Yes

Volunteer: Become a Mentor for High School Summer Interns - Summer 2026

The Experiences in Research program is a 6-week internship for high school students to work on cutting edge projects alongside experts at Berkeley Lab. We are looking for projects/mentors from both STEM and STEM adjacent fields (experimental, data science, coding, administration, science communication). Project descriptions for summer 2025 can be found here. Mentors/projects that can have interns on-site for at least 2 days / week will be prioritized for 2026.

Please complete and submit the project planner by January 23rd, 2026 for your internship project to be part of the program. Please visit our webpage for more information on commitments and timeline as a mentor.

For any questions please contact Faith Dukes (fmdukes@lbl.gov).

Berkeley Lab Program: Berkeley Lab K-12 STEM Programs

The Experiences in Research program is a 6-week internship for high school students to work on cutting edge projects alongside experts at Berkeley Lab. We are looking for projects/mentors from both STEM and STEM adjacent fields (experimental, data science, coding, administration, science communication). Project descriptions for summer 2025 can be found here. Mentors/projects that can have interns on-site for at least 2 days / week will be prioritized for 2026.

Please complete and submit the project planner by January 23rd, 2026 for your internship project to be part of the program. Please visit our webpage for more information on commitments and timeline as a mentor.

For any questions please contact Faith Dukes (fmdukes@lbl.gov).

Berkeley Lab Program: Berkeley Lab K-12 STEM Programs

Opportunity Type: Volunteer

Date: Runs Until Jul 24, 2026

Zip Code: 94720

Allow Groups: Yes

Volunteer: Seeking data science project mentors for BLDAP 2025-2026

The Berkeley Lab Director’s Apprenticeship Program (BLDAP) is a project-based high school STEM program designed to help participants develop 21st century skills, learn about Berkeley Lab’s research activities, receive college and career guidance, and develop a STEM network in a real-life work environment. BLDAP seeks to remove systemic barriers, such as a lack of access to professional networks and work-based opportunities, by providing strong connections to the scientific community at Berkeley Lab.  
The BLDAP 2025 cohort (21 students) will meet monthly (October - April) on Sunday afternoons or weeknights. In addition to college and career workshops, students will be working in teams to carry out a data science research project highlighting a community issue of their choice. The Berkeley Lab K-12 team is seeking mentors to check-in with the student team about once every other month to give feedback to their work and check on their progress. Check-ins will be conducted virtually over Zoom. We will try to pair mentors as a mentoring team.  
Mentors do not need to be data scientists - any experience working with data and data analysis is welcome! There will be an info session (October 14th at 10 am) to give an overview of the data science project. Most meetings will be held online unless indicated as hybrid.   
Check-in dates and project deliverables are as follows (please note that dates in January through April are subject to change): October 26 (hybrid): Meet mentees, refine research question, and data collection methods November 23 (check-in optional): Data collection ongoing December 14 (in-person; optional): Data collection ongoing; mentors are invited to join a lunch with mentees and BLDAP alumni January 25: Data collection done, data cleaning February 22 (check-in optional): Exploratory data analysis, data visualizations, data modeling March 22: Finalize data visualizations and findings for presentations April 19: Initial drafts of presentations ready for review May date TBD (in-person, optional for mentors): Presentations  
All volunteers participating in K-12 programs must complete an online working with minors course (~90 minutes), sign and submit a CANRA form, and pass a background check.
 
For any questions, please contact the K-12 Lead Education Facilitator, Corbin Shatto (cshatto@lbl.gov).

Berkeley Lab Program: Berkeley Lab K-12 STEM Programs

The Berkeley Lab Director’s Apprenticeship Program (BLDAP) is a project-based high school STEM program designed to help participants develop 21st century skills, learn about Berkeley Lab’s research activities, receive college and career guidance, and develop a STEM network in a real-life work environment. BLDAP seeks to remove systemic barriers, such as a lack of access to professional networks and work-based opportunities, by providing strong connections to the scientific community at Berkeley Lab.  
The BLDAP 2025 cohort (21 students) will meet monthly (October - April) on Sunday afternoons or weeknights. In addition to college and career workshops, students will be working in teams to carry out a data science research project highlighting a community issue of their choice. The Berkeley Lab K-12 team is seeking mentors to check-in with the student team about once every other month to give feedback to their work and check on their progress. Check-ins will be conducted virtually over Zoom. We will try to pair mentors as a mentoring team.  
Mentors do not need to be data scientists - any experience working with data and data analysis is welcome! There will be an info session (October 14th at 10 am) to give an overview of the data science project. Most meetings will be held online unless indicated as hybrid.   
Check-in dates and project deliverables are as follows (please note that dates in January through April are subject to change): October 26 (hybrid): Meet mentees, refine research question, and data collection methods November 23 (check-in optional): Data collection ongoing December 14 (in-person; optional): Data collection ongoing; mentors are invited to join a lunch with mentees and BLDAP alumni January 25: Data collection done, data cleaning February 22 (check-in optional): Exploratory data analysis, data visualizations, data modeling March 22: Finalize data visualizations and findings for presentations April 19: Initial drafts of presentations ready for review May date TBD (in-person, optional for mentors): Presentations  
All volunteers participating in K-12 programs must complete an online working with minors course (~90 minutes), sign and submit a CANRA form, and pass a background check.
 
For any questions, please contact the K-12 Lead Education Facilitator, Corbin Shatto (cshatto@lbl.gov).

Berkeley Lab Program: Berkeley Lab K-12 STEM Programs

Opportunity Type: Volunteer

Date: Runs Until May 30, 2026

Allow Groups: Yes

Volunteer: Become a Mentor: Help Students Learn About Robotics At Ygnacio Valley HS

Help Students Learn About Robotics

Ygnacio Valley High School’s robotics team in Concord needs mentors. You can make a huge difference in the lives of some really great kids — even if you’re not a robotics expert.

Why?
• Be the reason a student finishes high school, or goes to college, or likes learning
• Advance your own skills in EE, MechE, software, or project management
• Playing with robots is fun!


What qualifications do I need?
• No robotics or engineering knowledge required! If you’re able to circulate and help keep the students focused, or tell them where to put tools away, or remind them to wear their goggles in the lab, or figure out who isn’t asking for help they need, that’s valuable. If you’re good with project management, even better. Of course, if you want to learn about robotics so you can mentor more, we’re happy to teach you!
• Some availability 3:45pm-6pm on weekdays. We suspect this will be the sticking point for most people. See “What’s Involved” below for details.
• Reliability and communication. If you pride yourself on doing what you say you will, and on letting others know in advance when you won’t be able to deliver (because it happens to everyone), you’ll be a huge help to our understaffed team!


More Info
FIRST (“For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology”, www.firstinspires.org) promotes STEM education by sponsoring robotics competitions at several levels, culminating with the First Robotics Competition (FRC) for high school students.

YVHS created an FRC team, named Project 212, in 2018. We lost some institutional knowledge with the pandemic, but gained another mentor in 2022. Now our founding mentor is moving out of state, and our new mentor needs some help.

The FRC season involves teaching students engineering principles, lab safety, proper use of power tools, and many other skills from September through December. In early January, the rules for the new year’s competition are announced. Robots will compete in a
game with new rules, completely different from the previous year. In only 6-8 weeks, each team will figure out a game strategy, figure out how to build a robot to implement that strategy, program and debug their robot, and then compete against other teams. The robots
are entirely student-designed and student-built: Mentors only advise – we aren’t allowed to build, repair, program, or design any robots that compete. It’s impressive and inspirational to watch students take on that challenging timeline and build robots that work!


What’s involved?
• Project 212 meets after school Mondays and Fridays from 3:45pm-6pm (ish). It would be great if you could generally attend at least twice a month. (Arriving late or leaving early is fine.)
• During the “build season” (January through March), we also meet after school on Wednesdays, and also for 8 hours on Saturdays. You aren’t expected to be there every Saturday start to finish, but it’s valuable if you can show up more to help.
• Not required, but fun: Attend competitions with the students and cheer like crazy! (And, yes, help with team logistics.)


Sounds great! How do I get more info?
Please note: This is not a Berkeley Lab hosted program but through a third party (Ygnacio Valley HS). Please email Alyssa Brand at abrand@lbl.gov or lead mentor Jon Solera at  jon@emufarm.org and learn more!

Be a mentor — make a difference

Berkeley Lab Program: Berkeley Lab K-12 STEM Programs

Help Students Learn About Robotics

Ygnacio Valley High School’s robotics team in Concord needs mentors. You can make a huge difference in the lives of some really great kids — even if you’re not a robotics expert.

Why?
• Be the reason a student finishes high school, or goes to college, or likes learning
• Advance your own skills in EE, MechE, software, or project management
• Playing with robots is fun!


What qualifications do I need?
• No robotics or engineering knowledge required! If you’re able to circulate and help keep the students focused, or tell them where to put tools away, or remind them to wear their goggles in the lab, or figure out who isn’t asking for help they need, that’s valuable. If you’re good with project management, even better. Of course, if you want to learn about robotics so you can mentor more, we’re happy to teach you!
• Some availability 3:45pm-6pm on weekdays. We suspect this will be the sticking point for most people. See “What’s Involved” below for details.
• Reliability and communication. If you pride yourself on doing what you say you will, and on letting others know in advance when you won’t be able to deliver (because it happens to everyone), you’ll be a huge help to our understaffed team!


More Info
FIRST (“For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology”, www.firstinspires.org) promotes STEM education by sponsoring robotics competitions at several levels, culminating with the First Robotics Competition (FRC) for high school students.

YVHS created an FRC team, named Project 212, in 2018. We lost some institutional knowledge with the pandemic, but gained another mentor in 2022. Now our founding mentor is moving out of state, and our new mentor needs some help.

The FRC season involves teaching students engineering principles, lab safety, proper use of power tools, and many other skills from September through December. In early January, the rules for the new year’s competition are announced. Robots will compete in a
game with new rules, completely different from the previous year. In only 6-8 weeks, each team will figure out a game strategy, figure out how to build a robot to implement that strategy, program and debug their robot, and then compete against other teams. The robots
are entirely student-designed and student-built: Mentors only advise – we aren’t allowed to build, repair, program, or design any robots that compete. It’s impressive and inspirational to watch students take on that challenging timeline and build robots that work!


What’s involved?
• Project 212 meets after school Mondays and Fridays from 3:45pm-6pm (ish). It would be great if you could generally attend at least twice a month. (Arriving late or leaving early is fine.)
• During the “build season” (January through March), we also meet after school on Wednesdays, and also for 8 hours on Saturdays. You aren’t expected to be there every Saturday start to finish, but it’s valuable if you can show up more to help.
• Not required, but fun: Attend competitions with the students and cheer like crazy! (And, yes, help with team logistics.)


Sounds great! How do I get more info?
Please note: This is not a Berkeley Lab hosted program but through a third party (Ygnacio Valley HS). Please email Alyssa Brand at abrand@lbl.gov or lead mentor Jon Solera at  jon@emufarm.org and learn more!

Be a mentor — make a difference

Berkeley Lab Program: Berkeley Lab K-12 STEM Programs

Opportunity Type: Volunteer

Date: Is Ongoing

Zip Code: 94518

Allow Groups: No

Volunteer: Support the Pinole Valley Engineering Academy

This year, Pinole Valley High School is seeking volunteers from ALL areas of Engineering to support activities. These activities include speaking opportunities, mock interviews, judging and more.  

A highlighted event includes their Engineering Day/Week being held from September 25-29. Sophomores are taking a course called Principles of Engineering, where they are introduced  to as many engineering/trade disciplines as possible. They are looking for those that may be interested in attending as guest speakers.

Students will be divided into 4 groups, and each group will rotate rooms where they listen to a speaker or participate in a hands-on activity. During the rotations, speakers will stay in the same room. Each speaker would do a 30 minute presentation per group. The Academy would like to have 2 speakers per room to switch off. Hands-on activities are also very welcome.  

We have roughly 55 Sophomores in total. For details on our academy, see the attached.

If you are interested in supporting Engineering Day or supporting us in any other activities we may have, please complete the attached participating form. It includes the list of times for Engineering Week. 

 

Please respond to this note AND complete the participation form linked above. 



Berkeley Lab Program: Berkeley Lab K-12 STEM Programs

This year, Pinole Valley High School is seeking volunteers from ALL areas of Engineering to support activities. These activities include speaking opportunities, mock interviews, judging and more.  

A highlighted event includes their Engineering Day/Week being held from September 25-29. Sophomores are taking a course called Principles of Engineering, where they are introduced  to as many engineering/trade disciplines as possible. They are looking for those that may be interested in attending as guest speakers.

Students will be divided into 4 groups, and each group will rotate rooms where they listen to a speaker or participate in a hands-on activity. During the rotations, speakers will stay in the same room. Each speaker would do a 30 minute presentation per group. The Academy would like to have 2 speakers per room to switch off. Hands-on activities are also very welcome.  

We have roughly 55 Sophomores in total. For details on our academy, see the attached.

If you are interested in supporting Engineering Day or supporting us in any other activities we may have, please complete the attached participating form. It includes the list of times for Engineering Week. 

 

Please respond to this note AND complete the participation form linked above. 



Berkeley Lab Program: Berkeley Lab K-12 STEM Programs

Opportunity Type: Volunteer

Date: Is Ongoing

Allow Groups: No

Volunteer: Activities with K-12

This opportunity block will be used to capture activities that were not previously advertised on the galaxy digital site and/or are ongoing opportunities with community organizations.

Managers can assign this block to users for previous volunteer opportunity hours. Please respond to this opportunity and email Faith Dukes (fmdukes@lbl.gov) to update hours. 

Berkeley Lab Program: Berkeley Lab K-12 STEM Programs

This opportunity block will be used to capture activities that were not previously advertised on the galaxy digital site and/or are ongoing opportunities with community organizations.

Managers can assign this block to users for previous volunteer opportunity hours. Please respond to this opportunity and email Faith Dukes (fmdukes@lbl.gov) to update hours. 

Berkeley Lab Program: Berkeley Lab K-12 STEM Programs

Opportunity Type: Volunteer

Date: Is Ongoing

Allow Groups: No