The Science News Learning Ambassadors are educators from across the country who have been inspiring their middle and high school science students with Science News journalism for years! They are Science News Learning expert teachers who want to share their love of teaching science literacy using current, real-life examples with others throughout the school year. Ambassadors partner with program staff to give meaningful feedback and develop new, creative lesson plans using Science News Learning resources and solutions for their own classrooms.

Shanya Gill, 12, from San Jose, California; won the $25,000 Thermo Fisher Scientific ASCEND (Aspiring Scientists Cultivating Exciting New Discoveries) Award, the top prize in the competition.

2023: Society for Science today announced the winners of the Thermo Fisher Scientific Junior Innovators Challenge (Thermo Fisher JIC), the nation’s premier middle school science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) competition.

Here you’ll find links to learn more about each of the 2023 top 30 JIC finalists, who represent 12 states across the country. Scroll through the finalists and click through to learn more about them and their projects. Each profile includes their research poster, a video and other interesting information about the finalist and their project.

September 2023: Society for Science and Thermo Fisher Scientific are proud to announce the 30 finalists in the 2023 Thermo Fisher Scientific Junior Innovators Challenge — the nation’s premier STEM research competition for middle school students. The finalists will travel to Washington, DC from October 28 – November 2 to participate in the Finals Week of the competition. Each student will be judged on both their science research projects as well as their demonstration of collaboration and critical thinking skills during team challenges, emphasizing the importance and value of teamwork in STEM fields.

The Society is proud to work with all of our incredible Advocates for 2020-21! Learn more about who they are and what inspires them.

Society for Science 2022 Annual Report – Looking Beyond – Donors